IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/joares/v45y2007i2p229-256.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Market Transparency and the Accounting Regime

Author

Listed:
  • ALEXANDER BLECK
  • XUEWEN LIU

Abstract

We model the interaction of financial market transparency and different accounting regimes. This paper provides a theoretical rationale for the recently proposed shift in accounting standards from historic cost accounting to marking to market. The paper shows that marking to market can provide investors with an early warning mechanism while historical cost gives management a “veil” under which they can potentially mask a firm's true economic performance. The model provides new explanations for several empirical findings and has some novel implications. We show that greater opacity in financial markets leads to more frequent and more severe crashes in asset prices (under a historic‐cost‐accounting regime). Moreover, our model indicates that historic cost accounting can make the financial market more rather than less volatile, which runs counter to conventional wisdom. The mechanism shown in the model also sheds light on the cause of many financial scandals in recent years.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexander Bleck & Xuewen Liu, 2007. "Market Transparency and the Accounting Regime," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(2), pages 229-256, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:joares:v:45:y:2007:i:2:p:229-256
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-679X.2007.00231.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-679X.2007.00231.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1475-679X.2007.00231.x?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Oliver Hart & John Moore, 1994. "A Theory of Debt Based on the Inalienability of Human Capital," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(4), pages 841-879.
    2. Robert M. Bushman & Joseph D. Piotroski & Abbie J. Smith, 2004. "What Determines Corporate Transparency?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(2), pages 207-252, May.
    3. John Y. Campbell & Martin Lettau & Burton G. Malkiel & Yexiao Xu, 2001. "Have Individual Stocks Become More Volatile? An Empirical Exploration of Idiosyncratic Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(1), pages 1-43, February.
    4. Campbell, John Y. & Hentschel, Ludger, 1992. "No news is good news *1: An asymmetric model of changing volatility in stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 281-318, June.
    5. Christie, Andrew A., 1982. "The stochastic behavior of common stock variances : Value, leverage and interest rate effects," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 407-432, December.
    6. Jin, Li & Myers, Stewart C., 2006. "R2 around the world: New theory and new tests," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 257-292, February.
    7. Dimitrios P Tsomocos & Xavier Freixas & Universitat Pompeu Fabra and CEPR, 2004. "Books vs. Fair Value Accounting in Banking, and Intertemporal Smoothing," Economics Series Working Papers 2004-FE-13, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    8. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    9. Bushee, BJ & Noe, CF, 2000. "Corporate disclosure practices, institutional investors, and stock return volatility," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38, pages 171-202.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Li, Xiaorong & Wang, Steven Shuye & Wang, Xue, 2017. "Trust and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 74-91.
    2. Lassaâd Mbarek & Dorra Mezzez Hmaied, 2012. "Bank informational opacity: evidence from the Tunisian stock market," Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 20(3), pages 278-292, July.
    3. Brockman, Paul & Unlu, Emre, 2011. "Earned/contributed capital, dividend policy, and disclosure quality: An international study," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 1610-1625, July.
    4. Deng, Xin & Hung, Shengmin & Qiao, Zheng, 2018. "Mutual fund herding and stock price crashes," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 166-184.
    5. Hung, Shengmin & Qiao, Zheng, 2017. "Shadows in the Sun: Crash risk behind Earnings Transparency," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 1-18.
    6. Xiaomei Han & Wei Luo & Liansheng Wu & Wei Zhou, 2023. "Audit Effort and Stock Price Crash Risk," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 59(1), pages 230-257, March.
    7. Bo Sun, 2009. "Asset returns with earnings management," International Finance Discussion Papers 988, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    8. Gul, Ferdinand A. & Cheng, Louis T.W. & Leung, T.Y., 2011. "Perks and the informativeness of stock prices in the Chinese market," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 1410-1429.
    9. 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.
    10. Thomakos, Dimitrios D. & Wang, Tao, 2003. "Realized volatility in the futures markets," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 321-353, May.
    11. Yang, Xin & Ao, Xuan & Cao, Jie & Huang, Chuangxia, 2024. "Does liquidity connectedness affect stock price crash risk? Evidence from China," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    12. Wang, Meng & Goodell, John W. & Huang, Wei & Jiang, Ying, 2023. "Trade credit provision and stock price crash risk," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    13. Lin, Xiaowei & Ding, Zijun & Chen, Aihua & Shi, Huaizhi, 2022. "Internal whistleblowing and stock price crash risk," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    14. Chang, Eric C. & Dong, Sen, 2006. "Idiosyncratic volatility, fundamentals, and institutional herding: Evidence from the Japanese stock market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 135-154, April.
    15. Alemany, Nuria & Aragó, Vicent & Salvador, Enrique, 2020. "The distribution of index futures realised volatility under seasonality and microstructure noise," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 398-414.
    16. Cheng, Louis T.W. & Wang, Jacqueline Wenjie, 2021. "Equity ownership and corporate transparency: International evidence," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 143-165.
    17. He, Feng & Liu, Guanchun & Hao, Jing & Li, Youwei, 2023. "CSR performance and firm idiosyncratic risk in a data-rich environment: The role of retail investor attention," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    18. Torben G. Andersen & Tim Bollerslev & Francis X. Diebold & Heiko Ebens, 2000. "The Distribution of Stock Return Volatility," Center for Financial Institutions Working Papers 00-27, Wharton School Center for Financial Institutions, University of Pennsylvania.
    19. Ertimur, Yonca & Sletten, Ewa & Sunder, Jayanthi, 2014. "Large shareholders and disclosure strategies: Evidence from IPO lockup expirations," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 79-95.
    20. Alberto Plazzi & Walter Torous & Rossen Valkanov, 2008. "The Cross‐Sectional Dispersion of Commercial Real Estate Returns and Rent Growth: Time Variation and Economic Fluctuations," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 36(3), pages 403-439, September.

    More about this item

    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:bla:joares:v:45:y:2007:i:2:p:229-256. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-8456 .

    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.