IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jiaata/v36y2019ic4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring the nonlinear effect of conditional conservatism on the cost of equity capital: Evidence from emerging markets

Author

Listed:
  • Khalifa, Maha
  • Zouaoui, Haykel
  • Ben Othman, Hakim
  • Hussainey, Khaled

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the relationship between accounting conservatism and the cost of equity capital. Previous empirical studies examining this association use linear models that collectively resulted in a variety of contradictory outcomes. By combining existing theories in a new non-linear setting, we investigate the presence of a non-monotonic relationship between conservatism and the cost of equity capital for an international sample of public firms in 37 emerging countries during the period 2003–2012. Our findings present robust evidence suggesting a U-shaped, nonlinear relationship between accounting conservatism and the cost of equity capital. The same result holds for disaggregate measures of conservatism and other estimations techniques. The findings of this paper are in line with the theoretical framework of a “too-little-of-a-good-thing” effect, which indicates that the type of the association (negative or positive) depends on the level of conservatism. That is, the relationship is negative to an optimal point after which increasing the level of conservatism will increase the cost of equity capital. This paper sheds more light on the conservatism-cost of equity capital nexus and provides managers, investors, and policymakers with evidence to what extent conservatism is considered as beneficial or harmful.

Suggested Citation

  • Khalifa, Maha & Zouaoui, Haykel & Ben Othman, Hakim & Hussainey, Khaled, 2019. "Exploring the nonlinear effect of conditional conservatism on the cost of equity capital: Evidence from emerging markets," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 1-1.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jiaata:v:36:y:2019:i:c:4
    DOI: 10.1016/j.intaccaudtax.2019.100272
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1061951819301582
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.intaccaudtax.2019.100272?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Persakis, Anthony & Iatridis, George Emmanuel, 2017. "The joint effect of investor protection, IFRS and earnings quality on cost of capital: An international study," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 1-29.
    2. Christopher S. Armstrong & John E. Core & Daniel J. Taylor & Robert E. Verrecchia, 2011. "When Does Information Asymmetry Affect the Cost of Capital?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(1), pages 1-40, March.
    3. Francis, Jennifer & LaFond, Ryan & Olsson, Per & Schipper, Katherine, 2005. "The market pricing of accruals quality," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 295-327, June.
    4. Fama, Eugene F & French, Kenneth R, 1992. "The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 427-465, June.
    5. Richard A. Lambert & Christian Leuz & Robert E. Verrecchia, 2011. "Information Asymmetry, Information Precision, and the Cost of Capital," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 16(1), pages 1-29.
    6. Ruch, George W. & Taylor, Gary, 2015. "Accounting conservatism: A review of the literature," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 17-38.
    7. Koenker, Roger W & Bassett, Gilbert, Jr, 1978. "Regression Quantiles," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(1), pages 33-50, January.
    8. Aggarwal, Reena & Inclan, Carla & Leal, Ricardo, 1999. "Volatility in Emerging Stock Markets," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 34(1), pages 33-55, March.
    9. Luzi Hail & Christian Leuz, 2006. "International Differences in the Cost of Equity Capital: Do Legal Institutions and Securities Regulation Matter?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(3), pages 485-531, June.
    10. Estrada, Javier, 2007. "Mean-semivariance behavior: Downside risk and capital asset pricing," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 169-185.
    11. Khalifa, Maha & Othman, Hakim Ben & Hussainey, Khaled, 2018. "The effect of ex ante and ex post conservatism on the cost of equity capital: A quantile regression approach for MENA countries," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 239-255.
    12. Maha Khalifa & Hakim Ben Othman, 2015. "The effect of conservatism on cost of capital: MENA evidence," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(1), pages 71-87, January.
    13. Harvey, Campbell R, 1995. "Predictable Risk and Returns in Emerging Markets," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 8(3), pages 773-816.
    14. Demski, Joel S. & Feltham, Gerald A., 1994. "Market response to financial reports," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1-2), pages 3-40, January.
    15. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1998. "Law and Finance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1113-1155, December.
    16. Khan, Mozaffar & Watts, Ross L., 2009. "Estimation and empirical properties of a firm-year measure of accounting conservatism," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2-3), pages 132-150, December.
    17. William F. Sharpe, 1964. "Capital Asset Prices: A Theory Of Market Equilibrium Under Conditions Of Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 19(3), pages 425-442, September.
    18. Javier Estrada, 2004. "The cost of equity of internet stocks: a downside risk approach," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(4), pages 239-254.
    19. Morck, Randall & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W., 1988. "Management ownership and market valuation : An empirical analysis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1-2), pages 293-315, January.
    20. Miles Gietzmann & Marco Trombetta, 2003. "Disclosure interactions: accounting policy choice and voluntary disclosure effects on the cost of raising outside capital," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(3), pages 187-205.
    21. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    22. Morck, Randall & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W., 1988. "Management ownership and market valuation," Scholarly Articles 29407535, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    23. Hu, Jinshuai & Li, Annie Yuansha & Zhang, Feida (Frank), 2014. "Does accounting conservatism improve the corporate information environment?," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 32-43.
    24. Richard Lambert & Christian Leuz & Robert E. Verrecchia, 2007. "Accounting Information, Disclosure, and the Cost of Capital," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(2), pages 385-420, May.
    25. Hasan, Mostafa Monzur & Hossain, Mahmud & Cheung, Adrian (Wai-Kong) & Habib, Ahsan, 2015. "Corporate life cycle and cost of equity capital," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 46-60.
    26. Basu, Sudipta, 1997. "The conservatism principle and the asymmetric timeliness of earnings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 3-37, December.
    27. Christine Botosan, 2006. "Disclosure and the cost of capital: what do we know?," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(S1), pages 31-40.
    28. Jayaraman, Sudarshan, 2012. "The effect of enforcement on timely loss recognition: Evidence from insider trading laws," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 77-97.
    29. Hakim Ben Othman & Daniel Zeghal, 2010. "Investigating transparency and disclosure determinants at firm-level in MENA emerging markets," International Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 6(4), pages 368-396.
    30. Jo Thori Lind & Halvor Mehlum, 2010. "With or Without U? The Appropriate Test for a U‐Shaped Relationship," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 72(1), pages 109-118, February.
    31. Tracy C Artiach & Peter M Clarkson, 2014. "Conservatism, disclosure and the cost of equity capital," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 39(2), pages 293-314, May.
    32. Qintao Fan & Xiao†Jun Zhang, 2012. "Accounting Conservatism, Aggregation, and Information Quality," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(1), pages 38-56, March.
    33. Xi Li, 2015. "Accounting Conservatism and the Cost of Capital: An International Analysis," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(5-6), pages 555-582, June.
    34. Ciner, Cetin & Karagozoglu, Ahmet K., 2008. "Information asymmetry, speculation and foreign trading activity: Emerging market evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 664-680, September.
    35. Christine A. Botosan & Marlene A. Plumlee, 2002. "A Re‐examination of Disclosure Level and the Expected Cost of Equity Capital," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 21-40, March.
    36. Frank Gigler & Chandra Kanodia & Haresh Sapra & Raghu Venugopalan, 2009. "Accounting Conservatism and the Efficiency of Debt Contracts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3), pages 767-797, June.
    37. Qi Chen & Thomas Hemmer & Yun Zhang, 2007. "On the Relation between Conservatism in Accounting Standards and Incentives for Earnings Management," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(3), pages 541-565, June.
    38. David Aboody & John Hughes & Jing Liu, 2005. "Earnings Quality, Insider Trading, and Cost of Capital," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(5), pages 651-673, December.
    39. David Johnstone, 2016. "The Effect of Information on Uncertainty and the Cost of Capital," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(2), pages 752-774, June.
    40. Bekaert, Geert & Harvey, Campbell R., 2002. "Research in emerging markets finance: looking to the future," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 429-448, December.
    41. Jeroen Suijs, 2008. "On the Value Relevance of Asymmetric Financial Reporting Policies," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(5), pages 1297-1321, December.
    42. Diamond, Douglas W. & Verrecchia, Robert E., 1981. "Information aggregation in a noisy rational expectations economy," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 221-235, September.
    43. Mark Bagnoli & Susan G. Watts, 2005. "Conservative Accounting Choices," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(5), pages 786-801, May.
    44. Gary C. Biddle & Mary L. Z. Ma & Feng Wu, 2016. "Conditional Conservatism and the Cost of Equity Capital: Information Precision and Information Asymmetry Effects," Applied Finance and Accounting, Redfame publishing, vol. 2(1), pages 69-88, February.
    45. Baltagi, Badi H. & Wu, Ping X., 1999. "Unequally Spaced Panel Data Regressions With Ar(1) Disturbances," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(6), pages 814-823, December.
    46. Guay, Wayne & Verrecchia, Robert, 2006. "Discussion of an economic framework for conservative accounting and Bushman and Piotroski (2006)," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 149-165, October.
    47. Hsihui Chang & Guy D. Fernando & Woody Liao, 2009. "Sarbanes‐Oxley Act, perceived earnings quality and cost of capital," Review of Accounting and Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 8(3), pages 216-231, August.
    48. Bushman, Robert M. & Piotroski, Joseph D., 2006. "Financial reporting incentives for conservative accounting: The influence of legal and political institutions," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 107-148, October.
    49. McNichols, Maureen & Trueman, Brett, 1994. "Public disclosure, private information collection, and short-term trading," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1-2), pages 69-94, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ratna Puji Astuti KRISMIAJI, 2021. "Accounting Conservatism and Cost of Equity Capital – Evidence from Indonesia," CECCAR Business Review, Body of Expert and Licensed Accountants of Romania (CECCAR), vol. 2(2), pages 64-72, February.
    2. Hassan, M. Kabir & Chiaramonte, Laura & Dreassi, Alberto & Paltrinieri, Andrea & Piserà, Stefano, 2023. "Equity costs and risks in emerging markets: Are ESG and Sharia principles complementary?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Khalifa, Maha & Othman, Hakim Ben & Hussainey, Khaled, 2018. "The effect of ex ante and ex post conservatism on the cost of equity capital: A quantile regression approach for MENA countries," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 239-255.
    2. Maha Khalifa & Hakim Ben Othman, 2015. "The effect of conservatism on cost of capital: MENA evidence," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(1), pages 71-87, January.
    3. Naveed Razzaq, Zhang Rui, 2018. "Does Conditional Conservatism affect the Cost of Capital? Evidence from China," Journal of Finance and Economics Research, Geist Science, Iqra University, Faculty of Business Administration, vol. 3(1), pages 57-70, March.
    4. Beyer, Anne & Cohen, Daniel A. & Lys, Thomas Z. & Walther, Beverly R., 2010. "The financial reporting environment: Review of the recent literature," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 296-343, December.
    5. Terry Shevlin, 2013. "Some personal observations on the debate on the link between financial reporting quality and the cost of equity capital," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 38(3), pages 447-473, December.
    6. Rjiba, Hatem & Saadi, Samir & Boubaker, Sabri & Ding, Xiaoya (Sara), 2021. "Annual report readability and the cost of equity capital," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    7. Luc Paugam & Olivier Ramond, 2015. "Effect of Impairment-Testing Disclosures on the Cost of Equity Capital," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(5-6), pages 583-618, June.
    8. Ratna Puji Astuti KRISMIAJI, 2021. "Accounting Conservatism and Cost of Equity Capital – Evidence from Indonesia," CECCAR Business Review, Body of Expert and Licensed Accountants of Romania (CECCAR), vol. 2(2), pages 64-72, February.
    9. Xi Li, 2015. "Accounting Conservatism and the Cost of Capital: An International Analysis," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(5-6), pages 555-582, June.
    10. Chan-Jane Lin & Tawei Wang & Chao-Jung Pan, 2016. "Financial reporting quality and investment decisions for family firms," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 499-532, June.
    11. Teresa Chu & In-Mu Haw & Bryan Lee & Woody Wu, 2014. "Cost of equity capital, control divergence, and institutions: the international evidence," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 483-527, October.
    12. Fu, Renhui & Kraft, Arthur & Zhang, Huai, 2012. "Financial reporting frequency, information asymmetry, and the cost of equity," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 132-149.
    13. Araceli Mora & Martin Walker, 2015. "The implications of research on accounting conservatism for accounting standard setting," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(5), pages 620-650, August.
    14. Ernstberger, Jürgen & Vogler, Oliver, 2008. "Analyzing the German accounting triad -- "Accounting Premium" for IAS/IFRS and U.S. GAAP vis-à-vis German GAAP?," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 339-386, December.
    15. Tracy C Artiach & Peter M Clarkson, 2014. "Conservatism, disclosure and the cost of equity capital," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 39(2), pages 293-314, May.
    16. Akram Khalilov & Beatriz Garcia Osma, 2020. "Accounting conservatism and the profitability of corporate insiders," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3-4), pages 333-364, March.
    17. Venky Nagar & Madhav V. Rajan & Korok Ray, 2018. "An information-based model for the differential treatment of gains and losses," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 622-653, June.
    18. Schreder, Max, 2018. "Idiosyncratic information and the cost of equity capital: A meta-analytic review of the literature," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 142-172.
    19. Hamdi Ben‐Nasr & Narjess Boubakri & Jean‐Claude Cosset, 2012. "The Political Determinants of the Cost of Equity: Evidence from Newly Privatized Firms," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 605-646, June.
    20. David DeBoskey & Peter Gillett, 2013. "The impact of multi-dimensional corporate transparency on us firms’ credit ratings and cost of capital," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 101-134, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Conditional conservatism; The cost of equity capital; Nonlinear; U-shape; Emerging countries;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting
    • M48 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Government Policy and Regulation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jiaata:v:36:y:2019:i:c:4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-international-accounting-auditing-and-taxation .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.