IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finana/v41y2015icp176-185.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The accrual anomaly in Europe: The role of accounting distortions

Author

Listed:
  • Papanastasopoulos, Georgios A.
  • Tsiritakis, Emmanuel

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Papanastasopoulos, Georgios A. & Tsiritakis, Emmanuel, 2015. "The accrual anomaly in Europe: The role of accounting distortions," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 176-185.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finana:v:41:y:2015:i:c:p:176-185
    DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2015.06.006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S105752191500126X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.irfa.2015.06.006?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. Strydom, Maria & Skully, Michael & Veeraraghavan, Madhu, 2014. "Is the accrual anomaly robust to firm-level analysis?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 157-165.
    2. Aggarwal, Raj & Goodell, John W., 2010. "Financial markets versus institutions in European countries: Influence of culture and other national characteristics," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 502-520, October.
    3. Linghui Tang & Peter E Koveos, 2008. "A framework to update Hofstede's cultural value indices: economic dynamics and institutional stability," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 39(6), pages 1045-1063, September.
    4. Stephen Knack & Philip Keefer, 1997. "Does Social Capital Have an Economic Payoff? A Cross-Country Investigation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(4), pages 1251-1288.
    5. Stulz, Rene M. & Williamson, Rohan, 2003. "Culture, openness, and finance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 313-349, December.
    6. Aggarwal, Raj & Kearney, Colm & Lucey, Brian, 2012. "Gravity and culture in foreign portfolio investment," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 525-538.
    7. 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.
    8. Eugene F. Fama & Kenneth R. French, 2008. "Dissecting Anomalies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(4), pages 1653-1678, August.
    9. Nicola Gennaioli & Andrei Shleifer & Robert Vishny, 2015. "Money Doctors," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(1), pages 91-114, February.
      • Nicola Gennaioli & Andrei Shleifer & Robert Vishny, "undated". "Money Doctors," Working Paper 69721, Harvard University OpenScholar.
      • Gennaioli, Nicola & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W., 2014. "Money Doctors," Scholarly Articles 12965657, Harvard University Department of Economics.
      • Nicola Gennaioli & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 2012. "Money Doctors," NBER Working Papers 18174, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
      • Nicola Gennaioli & Andrei Shleifer & Robert Vishny, 2012. "Money Doctors," Working Papers 464, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
      • Nicola Gennaioli & Andrei Shleifer & Robert Vishny, "undated". "Money Doctors," Working Paper 228501, Harvard University OpenScholar.
      • Nicola Gennaioli & Andrei Shleifer & Robert Vishny, 2012. "Money doctors," Economics Working Papers 1355, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    10. Mouselli, Sulaiman & Jaafar, Aziz & Goddard, John, 2013. "Accruals quality, stock returns and asset pricing: Evidence from the UK," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 203-213.
    11. Carlos Forner & Sonia Sanabria, 2010. "Post-Earnings Announcement Drift in Spain and Behavioural Finance Models," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 775-815.
    12. Dechow, Patricia & Ge, Weili & Schrand, Catherine, 2010. "Understanding earnings quality: A review of the proxies, their determinants and their consequences," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 344-401, December.
    13. Aggarwal, Raj & Goodell, John W., 2009. "Markets and institutions in financial intermediation: National characteristics as determinants," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(10), pages 1770-1780, October.
    14. Jones, Jj, 1991. "Earnings Management During Import Relief Investigations," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 193-228.
    15. David McLean, R. & Pontiff, Jeffrey & Watanabe, Akiko, 2009. "Share issuance and cross-sectional returns: International evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 1-17, October.
    16. Konan Chan & Louis K. C. Chan & Narasimhan Jegadeesh & Josef Lakonishok, 2006. "Earnings Quality and Stock Returns," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(3), pages 1041-1082, May.
    17. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2006. "Does Culture Affect Economic Outcomes?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(2), pages 23-48, Spring.
    18. Fama, Eugene F & MacBeth, James D, 1973. "Risk, Return, and Equilibrium: Empirical Tests," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 607-636, May-June.
    19. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2008. "Trusting the Stock Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(6), pages 2557-2600, December.
    20. Bushman, Robert M. & Smith, Abbie J., 2001. "Financial accounting information and corporate governance," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1-3), pages 237-333, December.
    21. 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.
    22. Aggarwal, Raj & Goodell, John W., 2014. "National cultural dimensions in finance and accounting scholarship: An important gap in the literatures?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 1(C), pages 1-12.
    23. 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.
    24. Hope, Ole-Kristian & Kang, Tony & Thomas, Wayne & Yoo, Yong Keun, 2008. "Culture and auditor choice: A test of the secrecy hypothesis," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 357-373.
    25. Watanabe, Akiko & Xu, Yan & Yao, Tong & Yu, Tong, 2013. "The asset growth effect: Insights from international equity markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(2), pages 529-563.
    26. Georgios A. Papanastasopoulos, 2014. "Accounting Accruals and Stock Returns: Evidence from European Equity Markets," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(4), pages 729-768, December.
    27. Frijns, Bart & Gilbert, Aaron & Lehnert, Thorsten & Tourani-Rad, Alireza, 2013. "Uncertainty avoidance, risk tolerance and corporate takeover decisions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 2457-2471.
    28. Siegel, Jordan I. & Licht, Amir N. & Schwartz, Shalom H., 2011. "Egalitarianism and international investment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(3), pages 621-642.
    29. Ozgur S. Ince & R. Burt Porter, 2006. "Individual Equity Return Data From Thomson Datastream: Handle With Care!," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 29(4), pages 463-479, December.
    30. 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.
    31. Ivo Ph. Jansen & Sundaresh Ramnath & Teri Lombardi Yohn, 2012. "A Diagnostic for Earnings Management Using Changes in Asset Turnover and Profit Margin," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(1), pages 221-251, March.
    32. Doukakis, Leonidas C. & Papanastasopoulos, Georgios A., 2014. "The accrual anomaly in the U.K. stock market: Implications of growth and accounting distortions," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 256-277.
    33. Titman, Sheridan & John Wei, K. C. & Xie, Feixue, 2013. "Market Development and the Asset Growth Effect: International Evidence," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 48(5), pages 1405-1432, October.
    34. 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.
    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. Wil Martens & Prem Yapa & Maryam Safari, 2021. "Earnings Management in Frontier Market: Do Institutional Settings Matter?," Economies, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-19, February.
    2. John Cotter & Niall McGeever, 2018. "Are equity market anomalies disappearing? Evidence from the U.K," Working Papers 201804, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    3. El Diri, Malek & Lambrinoudakis, Costas & Alhadab, Mohammad, 2020. "Corporate governance and earnings management in concentrated markets," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 291-306.
    4. Cordeiro Moreira, Jeíce Catrine & Lima, Gerlando A.S.F. & Góis, Alan Diógenes, 2019. "Effects of institutional factors on the accruals anomaly in Latin America," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 1-1.
    5. Simlai, Prodosh E., 2016. "Time-varying risk, mispricing attributes, and the accrual premium," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 150-161.
    6. Mazzi, Francesco & Slack, Richard & Tsalavoutas, Ioannis & Tsoligkas, Fanis, 2019. "Country-level corruption and accounting choice: Research & development capitalization under IFRS," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(5).
    7. Belkhir, Mohamed & Ben-Nasr, Hamdi & Boubaker, Sabri, 2016. "Labor protection and corporate Debt maturity: International evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 134-149.

    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. Doukakis, Leonidas C. & Papanastasopoulos, Georgios A., 2014. "The accrual anomaly in the U.K. stock market: Implications of growth and accounting distortions," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 256-277.
    2. Papanastasopoulos, Georgios & Thomakos, Dimitrios, 2017. "Managerial discretion, net operating assets and the cross-section of stock returns: Evidence from European countries," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 188-210.
    3. Georgios A. Papanastasopoulos, 2014. "Accounting Accruals and Stock Returns: Evidence from European Equity Markets," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(4), pages 729-768, December.
    4. Huang, Alan Guoming & Sun, Kevin Jialin, 2019. "Equity financing restrictions and the asset growth effect: International vs. Asian evidence," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    5. Artikis, Panagiotis G. & Diamantopoulou, Lydia & Papanastasopoulos, Georgios A. & Sorros, John N., 2022. "Asset growth and stock returns in european equity markets: Implications of investment and accounting distortions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    6. Cakici, Nusret & Zaremba, Adam, 2023. "Recency bias and the cross-section of international stock returns," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    7. Papanastasopoulos, Georgios A., 2015. "Accruals, growth, accounting distortions and stock returns: The case of FRS3 in the UK," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 39-54.
    8. Cakici, Nusret & Zaremba, Adam, 2022. "Salience theory and the cross-section of stock returns: International and further evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(2), pages 689-725.
    9. Lu Zhang, 2017. "The Investment CAPM," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 23(4), pages 545-603, September.
    10. Simlai, Prodosh E., 2016. "Time-varying risk, mispricing attributes, and the accrual premium," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 150-161.
    11. Bartram, Söhnke M. & Grinblatt, Mark, 2021. "Global market inefficiencies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(1), pages 234-259.
    12. Lavezzolo, Sebastián & Rodríguez-Lluesma, Carlos & Elvira, Marta M., 2018. "National culture and financial systems: The conditioning role of political context," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 60-72.
    13. Massa, Massimo & li, zhe & xu, niahang & Zhang, Hong, 2016. "The Impact of Sin Culture: Evidence from Earning Management and Alcohol Consumption in China," CEPR Discussion Papers 11475, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Papanastasopoulos, Georgios & Thomakos, Dimitrios & Wang, Tao, 2011. "Information in balance sheets for future stock returns: Evidence from net operating assets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 269-282.
    15. Huang, Yuan & Lam, F.Y. Eric C. & Wei, K.C. John, 2014. "The q-theory explanation for the external financing effect: New evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 69-81.
    16. Richardson, Scott & Tuna, Irem & Wysocki, Peter, 2010. "Accounting anomalies and fundamental analysis: A review of recent research advances," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 410-454, December.
    17. Prodosh Simlai, 2021. "Accrual mispricing, value-at-risk, and expected stock returns," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 1487-1517, November.
    18. Chan, Konan & Lin, Yueh-Hsiang & Wang, Yanzhi, 2017. "Limits-to-arbitrage, investment frictions, and innovation anomalies," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 1-14.
    19. Tobek, Ondrej & Hronec, Martin, 2021. "Does it pay to follow anomalies research? Machine learning approach with international evidence," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    20. Pascal Gantenbein & Axel Kind & Christophe Volonté, 2019. "Individualism and Venture Capital: A Cross-Country Study," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 59(5), pages 741-777, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Accounting accruals; Accounting distortions; Accrual anomaly; International stock markets; Trust;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • 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:finana:v:41:y:2015:i:c:p:176-185. 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: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620166 .

    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.