会计环境对企业会计准则执行效果的影响——基于应计质量的经验证据

本文旨在调查两个相互关联的问题:企业会计准则施行后财务报告应计质量是否发生了显著变化?这种变化是否与会计环境相关?我们采用经典的截面琼斯模型估计操控性应计利润,以其绝对值计量应计质量,利用2001~2009年7722个上市公司样本观察值进行了统计检验,发现企业会计准则施行后应计质量下降。在给定企业会计准则是一套高质量准则的前提下,我们进一步分析应计质量下降的原因。经验证据表明:在会计环境不同的地区,上市公司应计质量的变化存在系统性差异。这反映会计环境影响了企业会计准则的执行效果。     

中国上市公司会计应计的时间序列特征

Givoly和Hayn（2000）发现1950年以来美国上市公司的会计应计持续下滑，并将此归因于稳健性的提高。本文将其主要方法拓展到中国资本市场，发现1998年后中国上市公司会计应计也大幅下滑，但采用Basu模型却发现稳健性无法解释这一现象。我们发现IPO后公司的会计应计在大幅下滑，而控制了IPO公司的影响后，上市公司整体并没有表现出会计应计下滑的趋势，因此我们认为中国上市公司整体表现出的会计应计下滑只不过是带着面纱的IPO后会计应计下滑。     

新准则下我国A股的应计异象存在性研究

会计利润由会计应计和经营现金流组成，但两者之间存在差异。如果投资者不能区分两者之间的差异，会高估应计部分的持续性．从而高估盈利和股价，即产生所谓的应计异象。本文检验了新会计准则施行后我国资本市场上应计异象的存在性。研究结论为：第一，总体看我国A股存在显著的应计异象。但各年的情况各不相同，以2009—2010年尤为明显．．第二．对我国A股市场的应计异象需要视具体情况分别进行分析。另外，研究还发现，在样本期内，A股公司的市场规模与其超额回报显著负相关。     

我国会计准则和国际会计准则盈余报告差异及经济后果研究

本文发现我国投资者不能完全理解AB股公司境内外报告的盈余差异对企业价值的影响。按国际会计准则应计盈余构建的套利组合能获取20％的超额回报,但是同时利用国际会计准则应计盈余和境内外盈余差异构建投资组合,则可以获取30％以上的超额回报。本文的研究结果支持我国正在进行的会计准则国际化。     

基于投资者有限注意的“应计异象”研究——来自中国A股市场的经验证据

本文在应计定价被高估的"应计异象"研究基础上,从投资者有限注意角度出发,将投资者分为高关注和低关注两类,实证检验两类投资者对应计定价的不同影响。实证研究发现,高关注投资者由于能够充分关注到包括应计和现金流在内的盈余组成部分,因而能够对应计作出较为合理的定价;相反,低关注投资者则对应计作出过高的定价。进一步的研究发现,在不同的市场态势下,高、低关注投资者对应计定价具有不同的表现:当市场处于牛市时,高关注投资者对应计进行了合理定价,而低关注投资者则存在对应计的高估;而熊市时,高关注投资者对应计作出偏低的定价,而低关注投资者则对应计作出了较为合理的定价。     

投资者注意力、应计误定价与盈余操纵

基于应计误定价视角,以投资者认知特征分析为切入点,本文检验了投资者注意力、应计误定价及盈余操纵间的关系。研究发现:(1)投资者注意力具有认知效应,投资者注意力的提高能够显著提高其对盈余构成信息的认知效率,并降低市场中投资者对应计信息的定价高估;(2)投资者注意力具有治理效应,即投资者对股票的充分注意能够显著降低管理层主观的盈余操纵行为。综合而言,投资者注意力具有"认知效应"和"治理效应",投资者注意力调节了投资者的认知效率并提升了对会计盈余构成信息的定价效率,进一步影响了管理层主观的盈余操纵行为。深化投资者注意力的研究具有很高的理论价值和现实意义。     

中国上市公司MBO前一年盈余管理实证研究

2004中期以来社会各界对于MBO过程中是否存在国有资产流失出现了较大的争论,其中一种意见认为公司管理层在MBO前通过会计处理对公司盈余进行管理,以利于其随后MBO的实施。本文选取截至2002年底公认实行了MBO而又可获取资料的15家上市公司,研究其在MBO前一年是否存在减少报告盈余的会计应计处理。通过扩展的JONESMODEL进行实证分析,未能发现证据支持管理层在MBO前一年采用了减少报告盈余的会计应计统计证据。     

盈余管理计量方法评述

现有的盈余管理计量方法主要有三种类型,包括应计利润分离法、具体项目法和分布检测法,其中应计利润分离法的应用最为广泛。本文结合国内外的实证研究对三种方法进行了研究和效果分析,发现截面Jones模型是我国会计界研究盈余管理问题的首选。     

我国上市公司应计质量与审计意见之间关系的研究

由于权责发生制下的会计盈余分为有现金流支持的收现利润和没有现金流支持的应计利润两部分,所以应计质量在很大程度上决定了盈余质量。本文深入分析了我国上市公司应计质量与审计意见之间的关系,并运用回归分析法,考察了应计质量对审计意见的解释性。研究结果表明,虽然总体上来看上市公司的应计质量与审计意见之间存在正相关关系,但是这种相关性仅仅在ST类公司中表现出了显著性,而在非ST类公司中并没有表现出显著性。由此可见,我国注册会计师的审计质量仍然有待提高。     

企业的经营决策影响应计吗?——基于企业生命周期的研究

企业是一个不断演进的实体,而演进的路径和速度决定于内部因素和外部因素,尤其是企业的经营决策,在不同的阶段有明显的差别。现有研究忽略了企业经营决策对于应计行为的重要影响,本文的结果表明,经营决策的变化和经营的结果直接决定了应计的演进,企业生命周期对于应计的决定具有重要作用。与此同时,在中国的上市公司中,处于不同生命周期的企业,其财务和会计特征都呈现出系统的、有规律的变化。本文的研究结果也表明基于现金流组合特征的生命周期代理变量,能够合理区分中国上市公司所处的不同发展阶段,具有简洁、实用、适合于大样本研究的特点。     

An Analysis of the Theories and Explanations Offered for the Mispricing of Accruals and Accrual Components

Numerous accounting studies claim that investors fail to rationally price accrual‐related information and that investors are functionally fixated. This study documents the importance of performing robustness tests when testing economic or behavioral explanations for apparent accounting‐related security mispricing. We find that performing robustness tests that exclude a small number of firm‐year observations (approximately 200 firm‐year observations or about 1% of the entire sample) reveals an inverted U‐shaped relation between buy‐and‐hold abnormal returns and total accruals. An inverted U‐shaped relation is inconsistent with the functional fixation (earnings fixation) hypothesis. We conduct similar robustness tests for the abnormal accrual anomaly and the net operating assets anomaly proposed by other investigators, and also find an inverted U‐shaped relation between buy‐and‐hold abnormal returns and abnormal accruals and net operating assets. These findings are inconsistent with the explanations put forth by those investigators. Such evidence leads us to conclude that the accrual‐related anomalies are unlikely to be due to investors' inability to process accounting information, as suggested by the functional fixation hypotheses tested.     

Analyst cash flow forecasts and pricing of accruals

This paper investigates how analyst cash flow forecasts affect investors' valuation of accounting accruals. We find that the strength of the accrual anomaly documented in Sloan (1996) is weaker for firms with analyst cash flow forecasts, after controlling for idiosyncratic risk, transaction costs and firm characteristics associated with the issuance of cash flow forecasts. We further show that this reduction in mispricing of accounting accruals is at least partially attributed to the improved ability of investors to price earnings manipulations imbedded in accruals. We investigate several non-mutually exclusive alternative explanations for this improvement in investors' ability and demonstrate that the increased investor attention and the improved accuracy of analyst earnings forecasts both contribute to the mitigation of the accrual anomaly.     

The Persistence and Pricing of the Cash Component of Earnings

Prior research shows that the cash component of earnings is more persistent than the accrual component. We decompose the cash component into: (1) the change in the cash balance, (2) issuances/distributions to debt, and (3) issuances/distributions to equity. We find that the higher persistence of the cash component is entirely due to the subcomponent related to equity. The other subcomponents have persistence levels almost identical to accruals. We investigate whether investors understand the implications of the differential persistence of the three subcomponents. Our results suggest that investors correctly price debt and equity issuances/distributions but misprice the change in the cash balance in a similar manner to accruals. Our tests enable us to empirically distinguish the “accrual” and “external financing” anomalies with results implying that the accrual anomaly subsumes the external financing anomaly. Our results also suggest that naive fixation on earnings is unlikely to be a complete explanation for the accrual anomaly. Our findings are more consistent with investors misunderstanding diminishing returns to new investments.     

The accrual anomaly in Europe: The role of accounting distortions

Numerous studies claim that the accrual anomaly in the U.S. stock market is due mostly to temporary accounting distortions arising from accrual accounting. We examine the validity of this explanation in an international setting. Across the 15 developed European equity markets we examine, accounting distortions contribute to the negative relation between accruals and future earnings performance in 14 equity markets. Further, we show that the negative relation between accruals and stock returns could be at least attributable to accounting distortions. In particular, accruals related to accounting distortions predict returns in 7 out of the 9 markets where the accrual anomaly occurs in Europe. Finally, we show that the impact of accounting distortions on the pricing of the accrual component of earnings is stronger in markets with a higher level of trust and a lower level of secrecy.     

Accruals,Investment, and Future Performance

It is well documented that accounting measures of investment, such as working capital and capital expenditures, negatively predict future stock returns. The earnings fixation hypothesis suggests that investors overestimate and overvalue the persistence of the accrual component of earnings. Another stream of the literature argues that since accruals capture growth, the accruals anomaly can be explained by the investment anomaly, which finds that firms that grow their assets tend to have lower future returns. As empirical proxies for accruals and investment are either positively correlated or interchangeably used, it is difficult to distinguish between the competing hypotheses in empirical tests. This study contributes to the debate by identifying two special economic settings in which the two explanations offer diverging predictions. First, investment in research and development (R&D) represents an investment expenditure that reduces earnings but is not subject to accrual accounting. Thus, the earnings fixation hypothesis predicts a positive relation between increases in R&D investments and future returns, whereas the investment anomaly predicts a negative relation. Second, firms operating with negative working capital have working capital accruals that are negatively correlated with other forms of investment and growth. Therefore, while the earnings fixation hypothesis still predicts a negative relation between accruals and future returns in this setting, the investment explanation predicts a positive relation. For both sets of tests, the empirical evidence supports the earnings fixation hypothesis for the accruals anomaly and is inconsistent with the notion that the investment anomaly subsumes earnings fixation in explaining future stock returns.     

The accrual anomaly: Australian evidence

This paper investigates whether there is evidence of the accrual anomaly ( Sloan, 1996 ) in Australia, whereby investors overestimate the impact of accruals on the persistence of earnings. While our results provide general support for the existence of the anomaly in Australia, there are a number of idiosyncrasies. First, there is evidence of Australian investors underestimating the persistence of earnings. Second, there is evidence of investors incorrectly assessing the implications of accruals and cash flows for the persistence of earnings (i.e. an accrual anomaly and a cash‐flow anomaly). Third, returns to a hedged portfolio trading strategy based on reported accruals are decreasing over the three‐year period subsequent to portfolio formation. Furthermore, they are statistically significant only in the first year. Additional analysis of the hedge portfolio results indicates that these results are primarily attributable to a limited number of firm‐year observations in the extreme positive tail of returns.     

Stock performance and the mispricing of accruals

I investigate the relationship between contemporaneous stock-price performance and the persistence of accrued earnings, and its impact on the accrual anomaly. I find that, in a fiscal year, accrued earnings for stocks that have performed poorly are less persistent in predicting future earnings than accrued earnings for stocks that have performed moderately. I further find that a hedge-strategy based on accruals earns greater abnormal returns following bad-news years. The results are consistent with conservative accounting causing accrued earnings to be even less persistent in bad-news years and investors failing to efficiently price this differential in persistence.     

The influence of the nature of government accounting and reporting in decision-making: evidence from Switzerland

A key objective of government accounting and reporting has been to achieve accountability and its use in that respect has been well documented, however its use for decision-making has had less coverage. This article addresses the latter issue, providing evidence from Switzerland that the accounting basis used (accrual versus cash) influences decision-making. This is the result of the effect that the different approaches have on the nature of the information used for decision-making. Switzerland was among the first western democracies to adopt accrual accounting at both state (canton) and local levels of government in the 1980s. The Swiss federal government followed in 2007. The main examples of the use of accrual information in decision-making are: the focus on self-financing of investments in order to control borrowing, as well as the fiscal policy targets of debt reduction and maintenance of capital. All three require accrual basis information. Therefore accrual basis information is key in fiscal decision-making in Switzerland.     

Accrual mispricing: Evidence from European sovereign debt crisis

PurposeThis paper examines the accrual anomaly on the European market and the impact of the financial crisis on its dynamics.Design/methodology/approachUsing a sample of public European firms, during the period 2005-2016, this paper follows Sloan (1996) seminal work and measures accruals as Dechow, Sloan and Sweeney (1995).FindingsThere is no evidence that accrual anomaly persists on European markets. The study shows that, contrary to previous research, investors are not underweighting the accrual component of earnings and that accruals are not a good predictor of future stock returns.Research limitations/implicationsOur study has two limitations. First, due to the lack of data, the original sample was reduced to about one third. Second, results must be interpreted carefully since the sample period may be seen as an outlier case attributed to the crisis. Research on future years may unveil a conclusion on this.Practical implicationsResults suggest that transaction costs and idiosyncratic risk are no longer a barrier to investors. Results also point toward a possible new outcome in investor´s behaviour during crisis. Economically, given the lower returns that can be obtained on today markets, it makes sense that investors may reduce their risk aversion levels to get more returns.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the ongoing debate about accruals anomaly and market efficiency. To the best of our knowledge, it provides an original contribution to the literature by framing the accrual anomaly during the European debt crisis.     

Seasoned equity offerings: Quality of accounting information and expected flotation costs

Flotation costs represent a significant loss of capital to firms and are positively related to information asymmetry between managers and outside investors. We measure a firm's information asymmetry by its accounting information quality based on two extensions of the Dechow and Dichev [2002. The quality of accruals and earnings: the role of accrual estimation errors. Accounting Review 77, 35–59] earnings accruals model, which is a more direct approach to assessing the information available to outside investors than the more commonly used proxies. Our main hypothesis is that poor accounting information quality raises uncertainty about a firm's financial condition for outside investors, though not necessarily for insiders. This accounting effect lowers demand for a firm's new equity, thereby raising underwriting costs and risk. Using a large sample of seasoned equity offerings (SEOs), we show that poor accounting information quality is associated with higher flotation costs in terms of larger underwriting fees, larger negative SEO announcement effects, and a higher probability of SEO withdrawals. These results are robust to joint determination of offer size and flotation cost components and to adjustments for sample selection bias.