Asymmetric timeliness of earnings, market-to-book and conservatism in financial reporting

Asymmetric timeliness of earnings, market-to-book and conservatism in financial reporting

Sugata Roychowdhury, Ross L. Watts

Journal of Accounting and Economics 44 (2007) 2–31

Market-to-book ratio原来也有当conservatism proxy的时候，它和寻常人们用的Basu的那个earnings timeliness proxy不完全一致。在两种情形下，他们成正比或反比。

是Sloan的大牛写的，有空在翻出来看看。


Using an accounting conservatism theory that reflects accounting’s role in practice, we investigate the relation between two extensively used measures of conservatism: asymmetric timeliness of earnings and the market-to-book ratio (MTB). We predict and observe that when asymmetric timeliness is measured cumulatively over long periods, its relation with end-of-period MTB is positive. When asymmetric timeliness is measured over short periods, its dependence on beginning of-period composition of equity value (EV) is responsible for its negative association with MTB. Further, asymmetric timeliness appears to measure conservatism more efficiently when it is estimated cumulatively over multiple periods.

Discussion of ‘‘Asymmetric timeliness of earnings, market-to-book and conservatism in financial reporting’’

Anne Beatty

这文还有一篇discussion。