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The Accounting Standards Board of Japan (ASBJ) proposed a new set of endorsed International Financial Reporting Standards in June 2015. ASBJ claims that non-recycling of other comprehensive income (OCI) items decreases the information usefulness of earnings in a proposed comprehensive income standard. There has been no existing empirical evidence which supports the ASBJ’s statement and the purpose of the study is to test whether OCI recycling improves information usefulness of net income from six perspectives: relative and incremental value relevance, persistence, variability, operating cash flow and net income predictive power.

This paper is an empirical work using a listed Japanese firms sample of 5,385 firm-years from fiscal year 2012-2014.

The results challenge the ASBJ’s claim that recycling improves the general information usefulness characteristics of net income. The empirical results show that OCI recycling improves net income’s relative value relevance characteristic of financial firms. However, recycling information by itself does not improve the incremental value relevance, and the predictive power of operating cash flow and net income. The authors also find that the inclusion of recycling decreases the persistence and increases the variability of net income.

This paper has two research limitations. First, this study is constrained to analyze a limited OCI recycling data that is recently disclosed by listed Japanese firms. Second, the results of this study have limited external validity to capital markets with OCI reclassification standards that deviate from Japanese GAAP.

This study provides initial empirical evidence that examines information usefulness of OCI recycling in Japan. The findings of this study are relevant for accounting standards setters aiming to increase the information usefulness of earnings for capital market investors.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of analysts' operating cash flow forecasts of Australian listed firms and whether or not such forecasts improve the usefulness of earnings and predictive ability of current cash flows.

The authors used a large sample of firms for which both cash flows and earnings forecasts were available over a period between 1993 and 2003, and employed both univariate and logistic regression analyses.

It was found that analysts forecast both operating cash flows and earnings when the firms are more complex in operations and when the size of the firm is relatively small. Further, it was found that cash flow forecasts improve the usefulness of earnings and predictive ability of current cash flows.

This study contributes to current understanding of analysts' forecast behaviour regarding dissemination of operating cash flow information and usefulness of cash flow forecasts.

The study is driven by concerns raised by standard setters and others about the usefulness of performance reporting under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Of primary interest is whether explicitly defining what information should be included in earnings results in an earnings measure that is more relevant than operating earnings computed according to current GAAP. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether reducing management discretion in the reporting of performance adds to the value relevance of the performance measures reported to capital markets.

The value relevance of this non‐GAAP earnings measure is examined by estimating market valuation and returns models for 518 US firms included in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index over the time period 2002‐2007.

Results show that the explicitly defined non‐GAAP measure used is significantly associated with equity market values and returns and is significantly more value‐relevant than the GAAP measure.

The paper contributes to accounting literature assessing the relevance of earnings in setting equity market value. More specifically, it provides evidence consistent with prior results that non‐GAAP performance measures are more useful in valuation than GAAP earnings. However, in contrast with prior studies, the more explicit performance measure the paper examines removes some of the classificatory discretion pervasive in other non‐GAAP earnings metrics.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of ASU 2016–01 on the predictive value, the confirmatory value and the value relevance of earnings. One of the key provisions of ASU 2016–01 is the requirement that all changes in unrealized gains and losses on all equity securities are recognized in income instead of other comprehensive income (OCI) as under prior guidance (SFAS 115). Because many companies in the insurance industry are large holders of equity securities, the sample for this study consists of firms from the insurance industry.

The author compares the change in earnings volatility and analysts’ forecast error for the periods before and after adoption of ASU 2016–01, and the relationship between the percentages of assets invested in equity securities for both earnings volatility and analysts’ forecast error. Further, the author tests the price reaction at the time of the release of earnings using an event study. The author also tests the value reliance of earnings measured by the correlation of earnings and stock prices, as well as the change in earnings and stock returns. The association between investment gain/loss components of earnings, and OCI, with stock prices and returns is tested for value relevance.

The findings of this study show that earnings volatility and analysts’ forecast errors increased in the period after adopting ASU 2016–01 and an initial overreaction to earnings releases. Further, the investment gain/loss components of earnings and OCI are not value-relevant in this study and including unrealized gains/losses on equity securities in income decreased value relevance of earnings in the post-adoption period, particularly for firms with large equity investment portfolios.

This study is limited to one industry and only represents the impact of ASU 2016–01 on that industry. Thus, there are opportunities to extend the research to other industries. Furthermore, the time-period of study since adopting ASU 2016–01 is limited to only two years and with the passage of time, a greater sample of post-ASU 2016–01 will be available for testing.

Standard setters considering recognizing fair value changes on all investment securities in income should consider the findings of this study. Further, industry participants affected by ASU 2016–01 should consider improving explanation of earnings to mitigate the initial misunderstanding of earning announcements found in this study.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study on the effects of ASU 2016–01 on volatility of earnings, earnings forecast errors, market reactions to earnings releases and the value relevance of earnings. This paper fills a gap in prior research by studying the effects of fair value on reported earnings, which is limited in prior research. This study contributes to the growing field of research on fair value accounting.

In this paper, we investigate the information content of non-current assets (NCA) among firms listed on the main board of Bursa Malaysia. Specifically, we investigate the information content of tangible and intangible NCA during the economic crisis period of 1997–1998. Our empirical analysis uses time-varying and fixed effects models for the period 1995–1999. We measure information content based on the association of analysts’ earnings forecasts errors (AFE) with both capitalized tangible and intangible NCA. We find evidence of higher information content in tangible NCA compared to intangible NCA during the Asian economic crisis period of 1997–1998. Our evidence is consistent with the assumption that tangible assets are more reliable compared to intangible assets for prediction of expected cash flows during economic crisis periods.

This study examines (1) the extent of key audit matters (KAMs) reported by auditors is related to accounting estimates, (2) whether measurement uncertainty and management bias affect auditors to do so and (3) whether the use of accounting estimates, given the measurement uncertainty and management bias reported in KAMs adversely affects the decision usefulness of accounting information.

Data on key audit matters, accounting estimates, measurement uncertainty, management bias, etc. were collected from the auditor's reports of 351 sample Chinese listed firms. It employs regression analyses to assess the hypotheses on issues affecting the report of these key audit matters and the impacts on the decision usefulness of accounting information.

Fair value and impairment loss estimations make up of 2.6 and 44.1% of the 606 KAMs identified, respectively. Measurement uncertainty is positively, while management bias is negatively, affecting auditors report KAMs related to accounting estimates. The use of accounting estimates in firms where their auditors reported the KAMs related to accounting estimates does not enhance the value and predictive relevance of reported earnings. The assurance works on, and reporting of, KAMs served as a “red flag” about the accounting estimates.

The use of accounting estimates does not always lead to enhanced decision-useful accounting information. Auditors, in their stewardship role, shall ensure that the measurement uncertainty issue is appropriately identified, addressed and verified. In addition, they shall provide an effective check-and-balance to the accounting discretion managers have in providing decision-useful information from opportunistic reporting.

This study examines the proposition that while the use of estimates can enhance the decision usefulness of accounting information, it can also induce measurement uncertainty and management bias into financial reporting.

This paper examines how managerial discretion and judgment in revenue recognition affect earnings and revenue value relevance. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of lifting the objective-price constraint in revenue recognition on the value relevance of earnings and revenue by examining firms’ contemporaneous returns-earnings/revenue relation before and after the implementation of Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2009-13. In addition, this paper examines how the change in earnings value relevance is conditioned by agency costs, corporate governance, information environment, and audit quality. This paper further examines whether earnings, revenue, and accruals quality change after the objective-price constraint is lifted.

This paper employs a difference-in-differences research design to examine whether earnings and revenue value relevance are enhanced or lowered more for a list of 107 US firms that applied selling price estimates in revenue recognition under ASU 2009-13 than for a list of 107 matched US firms that did not apply selling price estimates. Sub-sample analyses are employed to examine how agency costs, corporate governance, information environment, and audit quality condition the change in value relevance. Additional analyses examine the changes in earnings, revenue, and accruals quality using accruals, revenue accruals, discretionary revenue, absolute abnormal accruals, earnings/revenue predictability, and smoothness.

The empirical results suggest that lifting the objective-price constraint in revenue recognition improves earnings and revenue value relevance for positive earnings and that the effect of information usefulness dominates that of managerial opportunism. Change in the earnings value relevance is conditioned by the level of corporate governance, information environment, and audit quality. Evidence of no significant reduction in the earnings/revenue/accruals quality corroborates the main findings.

The findings lend support to the new revenue standard (ASU 2014-09) that continues the use of the estimates of selling price in revenue recognition.

This study provides some of the first evidence that managerial judgment exercised in revenue recognition through the use of selling price estimates (i.e. lifting the objective-price constraint in revenue recognition) enhances earnings and revenue value relevance while such benefit does not come at a cost of reduced earnings/revenue/accruals quality.

This paper aims to examine the value relevance of accounting information from an emerging country perspective.

The study adopts Ohlson (1995) Price model to examine the extent to which accounting information explain variation in stock prices of listed firms on the Ghana Stock Exchange.

The study reveals that earnings and book value of equity exhibit a positive and significant relationship in stock prices. Earnings explain higher variation in stock market values on the Ghana Stock Exchange compared to book value of equity. The study however finds that despite the introduction of the International Financial Reporting Standards in Ghana, the value relevance of book value and earnings have declined significantly over the period 2005-2014.

A key implication is that regulators of capital markets, standards setters and accounting practitioners need to consistently improve upon the quality of financial reporting disclosures which will boost the confidence of users in their reliance on financial statements as the basis for choosing among alternative use of scarce resources. The authors adopted only the price model in testing the hypotheses. However, to provide comprehensive understanding of value relevance of accounting information, future studies can combine both the price and the return models.

The authors extend prior literature in the Ghanaian context with recent data. Finally, the study adds to the efficient market hypothesis by showing how share prices reflect accounting information produced by Ghanaian firms.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether financial analyst coverage affects the dissemination of disclosed operating lease information into cash flow predictions and stock prices.

The difference in lease expense between capital/finance lease and operating lease reporting is estimated based on the approach in Hsieh and Su (2015). This difference is referred to as the earnings impact from operating lease capitalization and is only available from footnotes. The authors then include the level of financial analyst following in a cash flow model to study its impact on the cash flow predictive value of the earnings impact. Similarly, the level of financial analyst following is inserted in an earnings-return model to assess the effect of analyst coverage on the association between contemporaneous stock returns and earnings impact.

The authors find that the cash flow predictive value of the earnings impact shifts to the interaction between analyst coverage and the earnings impact, suggesting that the decision-usefulness of the earnings impact is conditioned on the level of analyst following. Nevertheless, the authors find that the earnings impact continues to have explanatory value for the contemporaneous stock returns, while the interaction between analyst coverage and the earnings impact does not. This finding suggests that the earnings impact is already fully reflected in stock prices regardless of analyst following.

Since the estimation of the earnings impact from reporting operating leases as capital leases is based on the method developed by Imhoff et al. (1991), the results and inferences are thus constrained by the validity of the method.

The authors find that financial analyst activities accelerate the incorporation of the earnings impact from operating lease capitalization in cash flow predictions, but it does not promote the impounding of the earnings impact into stock prices. This finding suggests that financial analysts' influence on the dissemination of the earnings impact hinges on the type of economic activity, and failing to consider the financial analyst following in studying the cash flow predictive value of the earnings impact would obscure the findings.

The authors extend the findings of prior research that financial analysts' activities promote the incorporation of firm-specific information into stock prices by investigating the impact of financial analysts on the dissemination of disclosed operating lease information.

The paper aims to provide empirical evidence of the impact of IFRS adoption on the value relevance of accounting information in the emerging market of Saudi Arabia.

The sample consists of 98 non-financial listed firms operating in Saudi Arabia from 2014 to 2019, representing the years before and after IFRS adoption. The authors apply basic and extended price models to examine the value relevance of select accounting figures.

The authors findings provide evidence that accounting information is, generally, value relevant to the Saudi Arabian capital market. However, mixed results exist for particular accounting variables. Both earnings and cash flows are value-relevant in the period before and after IFRS adoption; equity is only relevant in the post-adoption period. Furthermore, IFRS adoption also increases the explanatory power of earnings. An increase in the value relevance of earnings and equity hurts the value relevance of cash flows. The effects are moderated by leverage and dividend policy.

The authors contribute to the ongoing discussion of the economic effects of IFRS adoption in emerging markets. The empirical findings show that initial concerns about IFRS adoption, as reflected by the negative coefficient within the regression analysis, are mitigated once the usefulness of the individual accounting variables published in financial statements is investigated.