{"title":"Accruals quality and efficient investing: Cross-country evidence","authors":"Seraina C. Anagnostopoulou","doi":"10.1016/j.intaccaudtax.2024.100654","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines whether the effect of firm-level financial reporting quality − measured in the form of the quality of accruals − on corporate investment efficiency differs across jurisdictions with different strengths of institutional and regulatory enforcement. Institutional enforcement effectiveness relates to operating in jurisdictions with lower vs. higher informational uncertainty about actual firm performance, and where institutions secure the correct function of markets, with limited concerns about the extraction of any unlawful benefits by insiders. This effectiveness should mitigate adverse selection and moral hazard concerns driving inefficient investment, in the way that firm-specific financial reporting quality has been shown to do within single-country settings. Using a sample from 25 countries, accruals quality is positively associated with efficient investing, regardless of any country-level institutional characteristics. This association becomes more pronounced when the country-level strength of institutional enforcement is weaker, consistent with firm-specific reporting quality increasing in importance when country level institutional enforcement worsens. This evidence indicates that, when the effectiveness of institutional enforcement in a country does not successfully alleviate information asymmetries or secure efficient monitoring of corporate insiders by capital providers, there is greater need for firm-specific accounting quality to perform this function and promote efficient firm-level investing.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":53221,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Accounting Auditing and Taxation","volume":"57 ","pages":"Article 100654"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of International Accounting Auditing and Taxation","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1061951824000600","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BUSINESS, FINANCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This study examines whether the effect of firm-level financial reporting quality − measured in the form of the quality of accruals − on corporate investment efficiency differs across jurisdictions with different strengths of institutional and regulatory enforcement. Institutional enforcement effectiveness relates to operating in jurisdictions with lower vs. higher informational uncertainty about actual firm performance, and where institutions secure the correct function of markets, with limited concerns about the extraction of any unlawful benefits by insiders. This effectiveness should mitigate adverse selection and moral hazard concerns driving inefficient investment, in the way that firm-specific financial reporting quality has been shown to do within single-country settings. Using a sample from 25 countries, accruals quality is positively associated with efficient investing, regardless of any country-level institutional characteristics. This association becomes more pronounced when the country-level strength of institutional enforcement is weaker, consistent with firm-specific reporting quality increasing in importance when country level institutional enforcement worsens. This evidence indicates that, when the effectiveness of institutional enforcement in a country does not successfully alleviate information asymmetries or secure efficient monitoring of corporate insiders by capital providers, there is greater need for firm-specific accounting quality to perform this function and promote efficient firm-level investing.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation publishes articles which deal with most areas of international accounting including auditing, taxation and management accounting. The journal''s goal is to bridge the gap between academic researchers and practitioners by publishing papers that are relevant to the development of the field of accounting. Submissions are expected to make a contribution to the accounting literature, including as appropriate the international accounting literature typically found in JIAAT and other primary US-based international accounting journals as well as in leading European accounting journals. Applied research findings, critiques of current accounting practices and the measurement of their effects on business decisions, general purpose solutions to problems through models, and essays on world affairs which affect accounting practice are all within the scope of the journal.