IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v52y2023ics1544612322006808.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How did Covid-19 affect investors’ interpretation of earnings news? The role of accounting conservatism

Author

Listed:
  • D’Augusta, Carlo
  • Grossetti, Francesco

Abstract

We examine how investors interpreted earnings news when the Covid-19 pandemic began. We argue the pandemic made investors unsure about the earnings news’ reliability and valuation implications. We compare earnings announcements in early 2020 to those between 2015 and 2019. During Covid, earnings news significantly increased (decreased) post-announcement abnormal volatility (returns), consistent with investors’ struggling to price the news. However, we find that Covid did not have such an effect on firms that had priorly established a reputation for conservative accounting. This suggests that conservatism, whose information effects have been debated by prior literature, alleviated investors’ concerns during the pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • D’Augusta, Carlo & Grossetti, Francesco, 2023. "How did Covid-19 affect investors’ interpretation of earnings news? The role of accounting conservatism," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:52:y:2023:i:c:s1544612322006808
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2022.103504
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612322006808
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2022.103504?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. Li Cui & Pamela Kent & Sujin Kim & Shan Li, 2021. "Accounting conservatism and firm performance during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(4), pages 5543-5579, December.
    2. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1997. "Industry costs of equity," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 153-193, February.
    3. Bakas, Dimitrios & Triantafyllou, Athanasios, 2020. "Commodity price volatility and the economic uncertainty of pandemics," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    4. Liao Xu & Jilong Chen & Xuan Zhang & Jing Zhao, 2021. "COVID‐19, public attention and the stock market," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(3), pages 4741-4756, September.
    5. Zaremba, Adam & Kizys, Renatas & Aharon, David Y. & Demir, Ender, 2020. "Infected Markets: Novel Coronavirus, Government Interventions, and Stock Return Volatility around the Globe," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 35(C).
    6. Albulescu, Claudiu Tiberiu, 2021. "COVID-19 and the United States financial markets’ volatility," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    7. Armstrong, Christopher S. & Guay, Wayne R. & Weber, Joseph P., 2010. "The role of information and financial reporting in corporate governance and debt contracting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 179-234, December.
    8. Zhang, Jinjin & Wu, Jinyu & Luo, Yalin & Huang, Ziyan & He, Ruzhen, 2022. "COVID-19 pandemic, limited attention, and analyst forecast dispersion," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    9. Carlo D'Augusta & Matthew D. DeAngelis, 2020. "Does Accounting Conservatism Discipline Qualitative Disclosure? Evidence From Tone Management in the MD&A," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(4), pages 2287-2318, December.
    10. Ke, Yun, 2022. "The impact of COVID-19 on firms’ cost of equity capital: Early evidence from U.S. public firms," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PA).
    11. Marc Badia & Miguel Duro & Fernando Penalva & Stephen G. Ryan, 2021. "Debiasing the Measurement of Conditional Conservatism," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(4), pages 1221-1259, September.
    12. 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.
    13. 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.
    14. Jie Hao & Viet T. Pham, 2022. "COVID‐19 Disclosures and Market Uncertainty: Evidence from 10‐Q Filings," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 32(2), pages 238-266, June.
    15. Mazur, Mieszko & Dang, Man & Vega, Miguel, 2021. "COVID-19 and the march 2020 stock market crash. Evidence from S&P1500," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    16. Erdem, Orhan, 2020. "Freedom and stock market performance during Covid-19 outbreak," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    17. Azimli, Asil, 2020. "The impact of COVID-19 on the degree of dependence and structure of risk-return relationship: A quantile regression approach," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    18. Brennan, Niamh M. & Edgar, Victoria C. & Power, Sean Bradley, 2022. "COVID-19 profit warnings: Delivering bad news in a time of crisis," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(2).
    19. Juan Manuel García Lara & Beatriz García Osma & Fernando Penalva, 2014. "Information Consequences of Accounting Conservatism," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(2), pages 173-198, June.
    20. Carlo D'Augusta & Sasson Bar-Yosef & Annalisa Prencipe, 2016. "The Effects of Conservative Reporting on Investor Disagreement," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 451-485, September.
    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. Anagnostopoulou, Seraina C. & Tsekrekos, Andrianos E. & Voulgaris, Georgios, 2021. "Accounting conservatism and corporate social responsibility," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(4).
    2. Cakici, Nusret & Zaremba, Adam, 2021. "Who should be afraid of infections? Pandemic exposure and the cross-section of stock returns," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    3. Ha, Joohyung & Feng, Mingming, 2018. "Conditional conservatism and labor investment efficiency," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 143-163.
    4. Ayhan Kuloğlu, 2021. "Covıd-19 Krizinin Petrol Fiyatları Üzerine Etkisi," Journal of Research in Economics, Politics & Finance, Ersan ERSOY, vol. 6(3), pages 710-727.
    5. Xiangyu Chen & Jittima Tongurai & Pattana Boonchoo, 2024. "Revisiting China’s Commodity Futures Market Amid the Main Waves of COVID-19 Pandemics," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 31(4), pages 1035-1063, December.
    6. Liu, Sun, 2019. "The impact of ownership structure on conditional and unconditional conservatism in China: Some new evidence," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 49-68.
    7. Doruk, Ömer Tuğsal & Konuk, Serhat & Atici, Rümeysa, 2021. "Short-term working allowance and firm risk in the post-COVID-19 period: Novel matching evidence from an emerging market," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    8. Carlo D'Augusta & Sasson Bar-Yosef & Annalisa Prencipe, 2016. "The Effects of Conservative Reporting on Investor Disagreement," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 451-485, September.
    9. hafeez, neelam & naseem naik, sadia, 2023. "Economic Consequences of the COVID-19 Eruption: A Study of Selected South Asian Countries," MPRA Paper 117319, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Joohyung Ha, 2021. "Bank accounting conservatism and bank loan quality," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3-4), pages 498-532, March.
    11. Loureiro, Gilberto & Silva, Sónia, 2022. "Earnings management and stock price crashes post U.S. cross-delistings," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    12. Henry Jarva & Matthijs Lof, 2024. "Identifying accounting conservatism in the presence of skewness," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 62(2), pages 553-577, February.
    13. Nyanine Chuele Fonou-Dombeu & Josue Mbonigaba & Odunayo Magret Olarewaju & Bomi Cyril Nomlala, 2022. "Earnings quality measures and stock return volatility in South Africa," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-15, December.
    14. Julien Chevallier, 2020. "COVID-19 Outbreak and CO 2 Emissions: Macro-Financial Linkages," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-18, December.
    15. Zheng, Wenyuan & Li, Bingqing & Huang, Zhiyong & Chen, Lu, 2022. "Why Was There More Household Stock Market Participation During the COVID-19 Pandemic?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PB).
    16. Baris Kocaarslan & Ugur Soytas, 2021. "The Asymmetric Impact of Funding Liquidity Risk on the Volatility of Stock Portfolios during the COVID-19 Crisis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-12, February.
    17. Gerald J. Lobo & Ashok Robin & Kean Wu, 2020. "Share repurchases and accounting conservatism," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 699-733, February.
    18. Pradip Debnath & Hari Mohan Srivastava, 2021. "Optimal Returns in Indian Stock Market during Global Pandemic: A Comparative Study," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-13, December.
    19. Richard Barker & Anne McGeachin, 2015. "An Analysis of Concepts and Evidence on the Question of Whether IFRS Should be Conservative," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 51(2), pages 169-207, June.
    20. Mingzhi Liu & Michel Magnan, 2016. "Conditional conservatism and the yield spread of corporate bond issues," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 847-879, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Covid-19; Earnings announcements; Investor uncertainty; Accounting conservatism; Abnormal volatility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

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

    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:finlet:v:52:y:2023:i:c:s1544612322006808. 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/frl .

    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.