IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibf/acttax/v4y2012i1p95-107.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Relationship Between Accruals, Earnings, And Cash Flows: Evidence From Latin America

Author

Listed:
  • Carlos Omar Trejo-Pech
  • Magdy Noguera
  • Angel Samaniego-Alcantar
  • Richard N. Weldon

Abstract

The relationships between earnings, accruals, and cash flows for selected Latin American countries (Mexico, Chile, and Argentina) are investigated in this study from 1990 to 2009. We find a negative relationship between accruals and cash flow across decile portfolios. More importantly, firms reporting the highest level of accruals, have the worst level of cash flows, but not the worst level of earnings. This relationship is of economic importance given that investors are very oriented towards firms yielding high earnings and might fail to realize that earnings are not always accompanied by strong levels of cash flows. Results are disaggregated by years and countries, and compared to previous results for U.S. firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlos Omar Trejo-Pech & Magdy Noguera & Angel Samaniego-Alcantar & Richard N. Weldon, 2012. "The Relationship Between Accruals, Earnings, And Cash Flows: Evidence From Latin America," Accounting & Taxation, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 4(1), pages 95-107.
    • Handle: RePEc:ibf:acttax:v:4:y:2012:i:1:p:95-107
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.theibfr2.com/RePEc/ibf/acttax/at-v4n1-2012/AT-V4N1-2012-8.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kothari, S.P. & Loutskina, E. & Nikolaev, V., 2006. "Agency Theory of Overvalued Equity as an Explanation for the Accrual Anomaly," Discussion Paper 2006-103, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    2. Moehrle, Stephen R. & Reynolds-Moehrle, Jennifer A. & Wallace, James S., 2003. "Dining at the earnings buffet," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 61-67.
    3. 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.
    4. Khan, Mozaffar, 2008. "Are accruals mispriced Evidence from tests of an Intertemporal Capital Asset Pricing Model," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 55-77, March.
    5. Arthur Kraft & Andrew J. Leone & Charles Wasley, 2006. "An Analysis of the Theories and Explanations Offered for the Mispricing of Accruals and Accrual Components," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(2), pages 297-339, May.
    6. 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.
    7. Freeman, Rn & Ohlson, Ja & Penman, Sh, 1982. "Book Rate-Of-Return And Prediction Of Earnings Changes - An Empirical-Investigation," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(2), pages 639-653.
    8. Carlos Omar Trejo‐Pech & Richard N. Weldon & Lisa A. House, 2008. "Earnings, accruals, cash flows, and EBITDA for agribusiness firms," Agricultural Finance Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 68(2), pages 301-319, November.
    9. 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.
    10. Kothari, S.P. & Loutskina, E. & Nikolaev, V., 2006. "Agency Theory of Overvalued Equity as an Explanation for the Accrual Anomaly," Other publications TiSEM 3f380fcf-b0ca-4198-86f8-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    11. Christoph Kaserer & Carmen Klingler, 2008. "The Accrual Anomaly Under Different Accounting Standards - Lessons Learned from the German Experiment," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(7-8), pages 837-859.
    12. Ashiq Ali & Xuanjuan Chen & Tong Yao & Tong Yu, 2008. "Do Mutual Funds Profit from the Accruals Anomaly?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(1), pages 1-26, March.
    13. Christoph Kaserer & Carmen Klingler, 2008. "The Accrual Anomaly Under Different Accounting Standards – Lessons Learned from the German Experiment," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(7‐8), pages 837-859, September.
    14. John Shon & Ping Zhou, 2010. "Can Mispricing Of Asset Growth Explain The Accruals Anomaly?," The International Journal of Business and Finance Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 4(1), pages 73-83.
    15. LaFond, Ryan, 2005. "Is the Accrual Anomaly a Global Anomaly?," Working papers 27856, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    16. Healy, Paul M., 1985. "The effect of bonus schemes on accounting decisions," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(1-3), pages 85-107, April.
    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. Omar Mohammad Al-Hawatmeh, 2020. "The ability of cash flows to predict the earning," Journal of Social Sciences (COES&RJ-JSS), , vol. 9(2), pages 590-602, April.

    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. David Hirshleifer & Kewei Hou & Siew Hong Teoh, 2012. "The Accrual Anomaly: Risk or Mispricing?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(2), pages 320-335, February.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. Carlos J. Trejo-Pech & Richard N. Weldon & Lisa A. House & Michael A. Gunderson, 2009. "The accrual anomaly financial problem in the food supply chain," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(4), pages 520-533.
    7. 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.
    8. Carlos J.O. Trejo-Pech & Richard N. Weldon & Michael A. Gunderson, 2016. "Earnings Management through Specific Accruals and Discretionary Expenses: Evidence from U.S. Agribusiness Firms," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 64(1), pages 89-118, March.
    9. Jawad Mohammad & Attiya Yasmin Javid, 2015. "An Analysis of Accrual Anomaly in Case of Karachi Stock Exchange," PIDE-Working Papers 2015:116, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
    10. 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.
    11. Papanastasopoulos, Georgios & Thomakos, Dimitrios & Wang, Tao, 2011. "Accruals and the performance of stock returns following external financing activities," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 214-229.
    12. Diana MURESAN, 2015. "The Mishkin Test: An Analysis Of Model Extensions," SEA - Practical Application of Science, Romanian Foundation for Business Intelligence, Editorial Department, issue 7, pages 393-400, April.
    13. 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.
    14. Santanu Mitra & Mahmud Hossain, 2011. "Corporate governance attributes and remediation of internal control material weaknesses reported under SOX Section 404," Review of Accounting and Finance, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 10(1), pages 5 - 29, February.
    15. Kai Du & Xin Daniel Jiang, 2020. "Connections between the Market Pricing of Accruals Quality and Accounting‐Based Anomalies," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(4), pages 2087-2119, December.
    16. Gikas Hardouvelis & Georgios Papanastasopoulos & Dimitrios Thomakos & Tao Wang, 2012. "External Financing, Growth and Stock Returns," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 18(5), pages 790-815, November.
    17. S. P. Kothari & Charles Wasley, 2019. "Commemorating the 50‐Year Anniversary of Ball and Brown (1968): The Evolution of Capital Market Research over the Past 50 Years," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(5), pages 1117-1159, December.
    18. Zhi‐an Hu & Zhuo Huang & Dawei Lin & Zhimin Qiu, 2022. "Have existing theories explained the accrual anomaly? An evaluation based on the decomposition method," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(3), pages 3645-3675, September.
    19. Georgios Papanastasopoulos & Dimitrios Thomakos & Tao Wang, 2010. "The implications of retained and distributed earnings for future profitability and stock returns," Review of Accounting and Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 9(4), pages 395-423, November.
    20. Kothari, S. P., 2001. "Capital markets research in accounting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 105-231, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Finance; Earnings and Cash; Financial Accounting; Latin American Public Firms.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G3 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance
    • M4 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - 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:ibf:acttax:v:4:y:2012:i:1:p:95-107. 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: Mercedes Jalbert (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.