交易分拆、合同间关系与会计准则制定——合同合并条件的理论分析

Transaction Splitting,Connections between Contracts and Accounting Standard Setting——Theoretical Analysis of Contracts Combination Conditions

本文基于新制度经济学对交易分拆和合同合并问题进行研究,寻找与其经济实质相匹配的关键可观测特征,搭建相关的理论框架。交易分拆的经济实质在于:企业通过产权或对价分拆,签订了多个形式上独立的子合同来降低目标产权的交易成本;然而多个子合同带来了特殊的合同间关系——前序子合同中的产权对后续子合同的资产专用性上升,需要得到有效的治理。上述分拆和治理过程使得这些子合同有着独特的可观测特征——合同间较强的内容关联性和订立过程关联性,本文以此构建了合同合并的三个条件:产权或对价关联条件、治理关联条件以及订立关联条件,同时讨论了各条件之间必要性的差异。这三个条件不仅可以涵盖现有的IFRS条款,而且在深入理解交易分拆的基础上为制定相关准则提供了理论基础。

Based on the New Institutional Economics,this paper studies the issue of transaction splitting and combination of contracts,looks for the key observable characteristics that match the economic substance,and builds a related theoretical framework.The economic substance of transaction splitting lies in the fact that the firm signs multiple formally independent sub-contracts to reduce the transaction cost of the target property rights through the split of property rights or consideration;however,multiple sub-contracts have brought special inter-contractual relationships:the property rights in the previous sub-contracts increase the asset specificity of the subsequent sub-contracts and the situation needs to be effectively governed.The above splitting and governance process makes these sub-contracts have uniquely observable characteristics:strong connections of content and signing process between these sub-contracts.This paper constructs three conditions for the combination of contracts:connection of property rights or consideration,connection of governance and connection of signing,while discussing the necessary differences between the conditions.These three conditions can not only cover the existing IFRS clauses,but also provide a theoretical basis for the formulation of relevant standards on the basis of a deepened understanding of the transaction splitting.