Does annual report readability explain the accrual anomaly?

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to investigate the possible role of annual report readability in accrual anomaly, shedding light on why investors fail to incorporate accruals information in a timely and unbiased manner beyond the original naive investor fixation explanation.Design/methodology/approachUsing five proxies of annual report readability and available data over 1993–2017, we investigate whether accrual overpricing is more severe when annual reports are less readable.FindingsWe find little (substantive) evidence of accrual overpricing among high (low) readability firms. The readability effects are contingent on the level of business complexity and earnings management.Research limitations/implicationsThis study extends the original naive investor fixation explanation and documents annual report complexity as a market friction in explaining the accrual anomaly, contributing to the mispricing vs risk debate and supporting the efficient market hypothesis.Practical implicationsLow readability of annual reports is a red flag to investors.Social implicationsThis study provides support for regulatory initiatives aimed at enhancing readability of corporate disclosures to address market frictions and improve market efficiency.Originality/valueAccrual anomaly has posed a challenge to the efficient market hypothesis. This study draws on and adds to the line of research indicating that annual report complexity is a friction erecting a barrier to transparency, hindering market efficiency. This study contributes to our understanding of the enigmatic accrual anomaly.

Asymmetrically Timely Loss Recognition and the Accrual Anomaly: Evidence From Pakistan’s Non-financial Sectors

An important role of Conditional conservatism is to align the timely expense recognition of revenue generated in terms of losses compared to the profit over negative components of accruals. Accrual anomaly shows asymmetric differential persistence for accruals and cash flows in years of economic gains rather than losses. The aim of this study to determine the asymmetric timely loss recognition and accrual anomaly of the non-financial firms listed at Pakistan Stock exchange (PSX). Top volume non-financial firms listed at PSX were taken for this study over a period of 2011 to 2018. The direct implication of this research on the pattern of pricing of accrual component of earning exhibits positive relationship of excess returns with accruals and stock returns; whereas negative relationship with earnings, market capitalization and indicator variable of profit firms. Overall, research result is consistent with Konstantinidi et al. (2015), the accrual effect on stock return is existent for earnings generated firms, while not apparent for loss firms. This evidence provides relevant information on the aspects of accrual anomaly and its association with the variables of conditional conservatism on the pricing of accrual during the profit years.

Accrual mispricing in the era of corporate governance reforms

PurposeThis study is primarily motivated by the increasing concern of the academic, practitioners, regulators and standard setters regarding the quality of earnings and financial reporting. The purpose is to investigate whether the accrual anomaly exists in Australia; whether the occurrence of the accrual anomaly is attributed to the discretionary accruals component stemming from managerial discretion; and the impact of corporate governance reforms on accrual mispricing.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs the Mishkin (1983) rational expectations test to examine whether the earnings expectations embedded in stock prices accurately reflect the differential persistence of earnings components. It also employs the hedge portfolio trading strategy to examine whether taking a long position in firms with low accruals and a short position in firms with high accruals will yield positive abnormal stock returns.FindingsThe results show that investors overestimate the persistence of accruals and underestimate the persistence of cash flows and subsequently, overprice the accruals and underprice the cash flows. The evidence of accrual mispricing is severe for the component of discretionary accruals. Nonetheless, the association between discretionary accruals and abnormal returns are weakened during the corporate governance reforms period.Research limitations/implicationsIt should be cautious to attribute the investors' ability to accurately price accruals and cash flows to the passage of corporate governance reform program. Despite there is control for firm size, book-to-market, PE multiple, growth and leverage, other macro-economic factors such as interest rates, inflation and GDP could potentially have an impact on stock returns.Practical implicationsThe passage of corporate governance reform program has increased the level of financial reporting disclosure and the monitoring of management, which subsequently improved accruals persistence and earnings quality. A direct practical implication is that investors should better understand the information in accruals for future earnings when the corporate disclosure environment is strengthened.Social implicationsThis study provides useful information to regulators, academics and investors interested in market efficiency and accrual mispricing. The results suggest that the reform of corporate governance is associated with more efficient prices. This may be of interest to the regulators who intend to improve earnings quality and financial reporting environment through the regulatory reform.Originality/valueTo test the accrual anomaly in the period of corporate governance reforms is particularly useful to regulators and policy makers. It allows regulators and policy makers to gain insight as whether the change of regulation has been effective – more transparent and timely reporting of financial information are supposed to help the investors to better understand the accruals and thus mitigate the potential for accrual mispricing.