IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bracre/v56y2024i3s0890838923001658.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Financial statement comparability and analysts’ optimism for accruals

Author

Listed:
  • Lee, Bryan Byung-Hee
  • Lee, Jay Junghun

Abstract

This study examines the role of financial statement comparability in mitigating analysts' optimism for accruals. Prior research shows that sell-side analysts do not fully incorporate accrual information in anticipating future earnings and thus tend to issue more optimistic forecasts for firms with a higher level of accruals. We posit that financial statement comparability allows analysts to use industry peers' information in assessing the persistence of accruals, thereby lowering their optimism for accruals. We find that analysts' accrual-related optimism is significantly moderated for firms with a high degree of financial statement comparability. Further, we disaggregate financial statement comparability into accrual comparability and cash flow comparability and find that the inverse relation between comparability and analysts' optimism for accruals is driven by accrual comparability rather than cash flow comparability. Moreover, exploiting the mandatory adoption of IFRS as an exogenous increase in comparability, we find that analysts’ optimism for accruals decreases significantly following the IFRS adoption while it does not show a significant change in non-IFRS-adopting countries during the same period. Collectively, the results suggest that financial statement comparability helps analysts process and interpret accrual information, thereby improving their forecasting activities.

Suggested Citation

  • Lee, Bryan Byung-Hee & Lee, Jay Junghun, 2024. "Financial statement comparability and analysts’ optimism for accruals," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(3).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bracre:v:56:y:2024:i:3:s0890838923001658
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bar.2023.101303
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0890838923001658
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.bar.2023.101303?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. Yonca Ertimur & Jayanthi Sunder & Shyam V. Sunder, 2007. "Measure for Measure: The Relation between Forecast Accuracy and Recommendation Profitability of Analysts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(3), pages 567-606, June.
    2. Gus De Franco & S.P. Kothari & Rodrigo S. Verdi, 2011. "The Benefits of Financial Statement Comparability," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(4), pages 895-931, September.
    3. Donal Byard & Ying Li & Yong Yu, 2011. "The Effect of Mandatory IFRS Adoption on Financial Analysts’ Information Environment," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(1), pages 69-96, March.
    4. Sundaresh Ramnath, 2002. "Investor and Analyst Reactions to Earnings Announcements of Related Firms: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(5), pages 1351-1376, December.
    5. David Hirshleifer & Kewei Hou & Siew Hong Teoh, 2012. "The Accrual Anomaly: Risk or Mispricing?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(2), pages 320-335, February.
    6. Ciao‐Wei Chen & Daniel W. Collins & Todd D. Kravet & Richard D. Mergenthaler, 2018. "Financial Statement Comparability and the Efficiency of Acquisition Decisions," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(1), pages 164-202, March.
    7. Thompson, Samuel B., 2011. "Simple formulas for standard errors that cluster by both firm and time," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 1-10, January.
    8. Dasgupta, Sudipto & Noe, Thomas H. & Wang, Zhen, 2011. "Where Did All the Dollars Go? The Effect of Cash Flows on Capital and Asset Structure," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(5), pages 1259-1294, October.
    9. Boni, Leslie & Womack, Kent L., 2006. "Analysts, Industries, and Price Momentum," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(1), pages 85-109, March.
    10. Cascino, Stefano & Gassen, Joachim, 2015. "What drives the comparability effect of mandatory IFRS adoption?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 57682, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Kenneth Merkley & Roni Michaely & Joseph Pacelli, 2017. "Does the Scope of the Sell-Side Analyst Industry Matter? An Examination of Bias, Accuracy, and Information Content of Analyst Reports," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(3), pages 1285-1334, June.
    12. Zhang, Zhuang & Ntim, Collins G. & Zhang, Qingjing & Elmagrhi, Mohamed H., 2020. "Does accounting comparability affect corporate employment decision-making?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(6).
    13. 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.
    14. Richardson, Scott A. & Sloan, Richard G. & Soliman, Mark T. & Tuna, Irem, 2005. "Accrual reliability, earnings persistence and stock prices," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 437-485, September.
    15. DeFond, Mark & Hu, Xuesong & Hung, Mingyi & Li, Siqi, 2011. "The impact of mandatory IFRS adoption on foreign mutual fund ownership: The role of comparability," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 240-258, April.
    16. Allen, Eric J. & Larson, Chad R. & Sloan, Richard G., 2013. "Accrual reversals, earnings and stock returns," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 113-129.
    17. Dechow, Patricia M., 1994. "Accounting earnings and cash flows as measures of firm performance : The role of accounting accruals," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 3-42, July.
    18. Caban-Garcia, Maria T. & Choi, Heeick & Kim, Myungsun, 2020. "The effects of operating cash flow disclosure on earnings comparability, analysts' forecasts, and firms’ investment decisions during the Pre-IFRS era," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(4).
    19. Kim, Jeong-Bon & Li, Leye & Lu, Louise Yi & Yu, Yangxin, 2016. "Financial statement comparability and expected crash risk," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 294-312.
    20. Elgers, Pieter T. & Lo, May H. & Pfeiffer, Ray Jr., 2003. "Analysts' vs. investors' weightings of accruals in forecasting annual earnings," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 255-280.
    21. Clement, Michael B., 1999. "Analyst forecast accuracy: Do ability, resources, and portfolio complexity matter?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 285-303, July.
    22. Jacob, John & Lys, Thomas Z. & Neale, Margaret A., 1999. "Expertise in forecasting performance of security analysts," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 51-82, November.
    23. Abarbanell, Jeffery S., 1991. "Do analysts' earnings forecasts incorporate information in prior stock price changes?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 147-165, June.
    24. Patricia M. Fairfield & Sundaresh Ramnath & Teri Lombardi Yohn, 2009. "Do Industry‐Level Analyses Improve Forecasts of Financial Performance?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 147-178, March.
    25. Partha S. Mohanram, 2014. "Analysts' Cash Flow Forecasts and the Decline of the Accruals Anomaly," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(4), pages 1143-1170, December.
    26. Jin (Ginger) Wu & Lu Zhang & X. Frank Zhang, 2010. "The q‐Theory Approach to Understanding the Accrual Anomaly," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 177-223, March.
    27. Lennox, Clive, 2005. "Audit quality and executive officers' affiliations with CPA firms," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 201-231, June.
    28. Hongping Tan & Shiheng Wang & Michael Welker, 2011. "Analyst Following and Forecast Accuracy After Mandated IFRS Adoptions," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(5), pages 1307-1357, December.
    29. Kane, Gregory D & Meade, Nancy L, 1998. "Ratio Analysis Using Rank Transformation," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 59-74, January.
    30. Hirshleifer, David & Teoh, Siew Hong, 2003. "Limited attention, information disclosure, and financial reporting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1-3), pages 337-386, December.
    31. Abarbanell, Jeffery & Lehavy, Reuven, 2003. "Biased forecasts or biased earnings? The role of reported earnings in explaining apparent bias and over/underreaction in analysts' earnings forecasts," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1-3), pages 105-146, December.
    32. Clare Wang, 2014. "Accounting Standards Harmonization and Financial Statement Comparability: Evidence from Transnational Information Transfer," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(4), pages 955-992, September.
    33. Sanjeev Bhojraj & Charles M. C. Lee, 2002. "Who Is My Peer? A Valuation‐Based Approach to the Selection of Comparable Firms," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 407-439, May.
    34. Mark T. Bradshaw & Scott A. Richardson & Richard G. Sloan, 2001. "Do Analysts and Auditors Use Information in Accruals?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 45-74, June.
    35. Mikhail, MB & Walther, BR & Willis, RH, 1997. "Do security analysts improve their performance with experience?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35, pages 131-157.
    36. Mendenhall, Rr, 1991. "Evidence On The Possible Underweighting Of Earnings-Related Information," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 170-179.
    37. Li, Feng, 2008. "Annual report readability, current earnings, and earnings persistence," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2-3), pages 221-247, August.
    38. Abarbanell, Jeffrey S & Bernard, Victor L, 1992. "Tests of Analysts' Overreaction/Underreaction to Earnings Information as an Explanation for Anomalous Stock Price Behavior," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(3), pages 1181-1207, July.
    39. Scott Richardson & Siew Hong Teoh & Peter D. Wysocki, 2004. "The Walk†down to Beatable Analyst Forecasts: The Role of Equity Issuance and Insider Trading Incentives," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(4), pages 885-924, December.
    40. Patricia M. Dechow & Amy P. Hutton & Jung Hoon Kim & Richard G. Sloan, 2012. "Detecting Earnings Management: A New Approach," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 275-334, May.
    41. Suresh Radhakrishnan & Shu†Ling Wu, 2014. "Analysts' Cash Flow Forecasts and Accrual Mispricing," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(4), pages 1191-1219, December.
    42. Bradshaw, Mark T. & Richardson, Scott A. & Sloan, Richard G., 2006. "The relation between corporate financing activities, analysts' forecasts and stock returns," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 53-85, October.
    43. Jong‐Hag Choi & Sunhwa Choi & Linda A. Myers & David Ziebart, 2019. "Financial Statement Comparability and the Informativeness of Stock Prices About Future Earnings," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(1), pages 389-417, March.
    44. Kothari, S.P. & Leone, Andrew J. & Wasley, Charles E., 2005. "Performance matched discretionary accrual measures," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 163-197, February.
    45. Jeremiah Green & John R. M. Hand & Mark T. Soliman, 2011. "Going, Going, Gone? The Apparent Demise of the Accruals Anomaly," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(5), pages 797-816, May.
    46. Michael Neel, 2017. "Accounting Comparability and Economic Outcomes of Mandatory IFRS Adoption," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(1), pages 658-690, March.
    47. Mikhail, Michael B. & Walther, Beverly R. & Willis, Richard H., 2003. "The effect of experience on security analyst underreaction," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 101-116, April.
    48. Francois Brochet & Alan D. Jagolinzer & Edward J. Riedl, 2013. "Mandatory IFRS Adoption and Financial Statement Comparability," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 1373-1400, December.
    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. Blankespoor, Elizabeth & deHaan, Ed & Marinovic, Iván, 2020. "Disclosure processing costs, investors’ information choice, and equity market outcomes: A review," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2).
    2. Ramnath, Sundaresh & Rock, Steve & Shane, Philip, 2008. "The financial analyst forecasting literature: A taxonomy with suggestions for further research," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 34-75.
    3. 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.
    4. repec:mth:ijafr8:v:8:y:2018:i:3:p:174-211 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Xiaomeng Chen & Meiting Lu & Yaowen Shan & Yizhou Zhang, 2021. "Australian evidence on analysts' cash flow forecasts: issuance, accuracy and usefulness," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(1), pages 3-50, March.
    6. Marcus L. Caylor & Dennis J. Chambers & Sunay Mutlu, 2022. "Financial reporting uniformity: Its relation to comparability and its impact on financial statement users," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(9-10), pages 1457-1488, October.
    7. Fangjun Wang & Zhichao Zhang & Luying Xu, 2020. "Corporate social responsibility and financial statement comparability: Evidence from China," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(3), pages 1375-1394, May.
    8. Chad R. Larson & Richard Sloan & Jenny Zha Giedt, 2018. "Defining, measuring, and modeling accruals: a guide for researchers," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 827-871, September.
    9. Petaibanlue, Jirada & Walker, Martin & Lee, Edward, 2015. "When did analyst forecast accuracy benefit from increased cross-border comparability following IFRS adoption in the EU?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 278-291.
    10. Zhang, Zhuang & Ntim, Collins G. & Zhang, Qingjing & Elmagrhi, Mohamed H., 2020. "Does accounting comparability affect corporate employment decision-making?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(6).
    11. Liu, Alfred Zhu & Schneible, Richard, 2017. "Analysts' experience and interpretation of discretionary accruals in predicting future earnings," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 88-98.
    12. Ding Ning & Irfan-Ullah & Muhammad Ansar Majeed & Aurang Zeb, 2022. "Board diversity and financial statement comparability: evidence from China," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 12(4), pages 743-801, December.
    13. Wang, Yushi & Feng, Yuan & Zhu, Zhangyao & Liu, Jia & Li, Yubin, 2024. "Financial statement comparability and expected default risk," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PA).
    14. De George, Emmanuel T. & Li, Xi & Shivakumar, Lakshmanan, 2016. "A review of the IFRS adoption literature," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 67599, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Christof Beuselinck & Philip Joos & Inder Khurana & Sofie van Der Meulen, 2017. "Which Analysts Benefited Most from Mandatory IFRS Adoption in Europe?," Post-Print hal-01745251, HAL.
    16. Jie Peng & Boluo Liu & Jing Wu & Xiangang Xin, 2024. "Financial statement comparability and global supply chain relations," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 55(3), pages 342-360, April.
    17. Matthias Demmer & Paul Pronobis & Teri Lombardi Yohn, 2019. "Mandatory IFRS adoption and analyst forecast accuracy: the role of financial statement-based forecasts and analyst characteristics," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 1022-1065, September.
    18. Emmanuel T. De George & Xi Li & Lakshmanan Shivakumar, 2016. "A review of the IFRS adoption literature," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 898-1004, September.
    19. Gray, Philip & Liao, Iris Siyu & Strydom, Maria, 2018. "The profitability of trading NOA and accruals: One effect or two?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 211-224.
    20. Biswas, Pallab Kumar & Habib, Ahsan & Ranasinghe, Dinithi, 2022. "Firm life cycle and financial statement comparability," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    21. Bok Baik & Kyonghee Kim & Richard Morton & Yongoh Roh, 2016. "Analysts’ pre-tax income forecasts and the tax expense anomaly," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 559-595, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Financial statement comparability; Accrual-related optimism; Analysts' forecast errors; Accrual comparability; Cash flow comparability;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting

    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:bracre:v:56:y:2024:i:3:s0890838923001658. 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/the-british-accounting-review .

    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.