Accounting Conservatism and the Quality of Financial Reporting: An International Study

10.6293/AQAFA.2010.08.02

Jin-Han Pae

Accounting conservatism ； Quality of earnings

Advances in Quantitative Analysis of Finance and Accounting

8期（2010 / 06 / 01）

23 - 52

英文

This paper empirically examines the relation between accounting conservatism and the quality of financial reporting across countries. Accounting conservatism is measured by the asymmetric timeliness of earnings with respect to concurrent stock returns. Using earnings smoothing as a measure of the financial reporting quality, the paper finds that accounting is more conservative in countries with higher quality financial reporting than in countries with lower quality financial reporting. The results are robust to controlling for the origin of legal system, and to different measures of financial reporting quality and a non-market based measure of accounting conservatism. Empirical findings suggest that conservatism may be a desirable aspect of financial reporting to protect investors and restore public confidence in the reliability of accounting data.

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