Thus, a detailed review of the attributes of existing
GAAP and an analysis of the quality attributes of accounting
reports resulting from the application of GAAP, including
an evaluation of variation in quality conditional on
variation in relevant attributes of the standards, is needed.
Such evidence on the quality of GAAP statements and variation
in quality conditional on standards’ attributes can
then be used to assess whether criticisms of GAAP have
merit.2 We provide such evidence in this paper.