a) Professional judgment plays an important role in financial reporting. Identify five areas in which the accountant preparing financial statements must make professional judgments that will affect the content of the statements. You are required to indicate at least two affected accounts in each area you identified.

b) Nobes (1998) suggests that for countries that have organizations that rely relatively heavily on equity markets, as opposed to other sources of finance, there will be a greater propensity for such organizations to make public disclosures of information. Evaluate this argument.