IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v52y2023ics1544612322007012.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Uncertainty of uncertainty and accounting conservatism

Author

Listed:
  • Cui, Xin
  • Ma, Tingting
  • Xie, Xiaochen
  • Goodell, John W.

Abstract

We investigate the impact of uncertainty of uncertainty (UOU) on corporate accounting conservatism, finding a positive association. Mechanism analysis suggests that under UOU, creditor demands for real information drives shifts toward accounting conservatism. Further analysis shows that the impact of UOU is more salient in non-SOEs, and firms with weak external monitoring mechanisms. Our study highlights that under uncertainty about levels of uncertainty, contract demand plays a significant role in corporate governance.

Suggested Citation

  • Cui, Xin & Ma, Tingting & Xie, Xiaochen & Goodell, John W., 2023. "Uncertainty of uncertainty and accounting conservatism," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:52:y:2023:i:c:s1544612322007012
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2022.103525
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612322007012
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2022.103525?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Huang, Yun & Luk, Paul, 2020. "Measuring economic policy uncertainty in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    2. N. Bloom, 2016. "Fluctuations in uncertainty," Voprosy Ekonomiki, NP Voprosy Ekonomiki, issue 4.
    3. Urooj Khan & Alvis K. Lo, 2019. "Bank Lending Standards and Borrower Accounting Conservatism," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(11), pages 5337-5359, November.
    4. Inder K. Khurana & Changjiang Wang, 2015. "Debt Maturity Structure and Accounting Conservatism," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(1-2), pages 167-203, January.
    5. Oliver Hart & John Moore, 1999. "Foundations of Incomplete Contracts," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 66(1), pages 115-138.
    6. Monica Neamtiu & Nemit Shroff & Hal D. White & Christopher D. Williams, 2014. "The Impact of Ambiguity on Managerial Investment and Cash Holdings," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(7-8), pages 1071-1099, September.
    7. Hanwen Chen & Jeff Zeyun Chen & Gerald J. Lobo & Yanyan Wang, 2010. "Association Between Borrower and Lender State Ownership and Accounting Conservatism," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(5), pages 973-1014, December.
    8. Cui, Xin & Wang, Chunfeng & Liao, Jing & Fang, Zhenming & Cheng, Feiyang, 2021. "Economic policy uncertainty exposure and corporate innovation investment: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    9. Toni M. Whited & Guojun Wu, 2006. "Financial Constraints Risk," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(2), pages 531-559.
    10. Calomiris, Charles W. & Fisman, Raymond & Wang, Yongxiang, 2010. "Profiting from government stakes in a command economy: Evidence from Chinese asset sales," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(3), pages 399-412, June.
    11. Jingjing Xu, 2021. "Relationship Between Controlling Shareholders’ Participation in Share Pledging and Accounting Conservatism in China," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 31(1), pages 9-21, March.
    12. Aggarwal, Raj & Goodell, John W., 2009. "Markets and institutions in financial intermediation: National characteristics as determinants," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(10), pages 1770-1780, October.
    13. Scott R. Baker & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis, 2016. "Measuring Economic Policy Uncertainty," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(4), pages 1593-1636.
    14. Charles J. Hadlock & Joshua R. Pierce, 2010. "New Evidence on Measuring Financial Constraints: Moving Beyond the KZ Index," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(5), pages 1909-1940.
    15. Lili Dai & Phong Ngo, 2021. "Political Uncertainty and Accounting Conservatism," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(2), pages 277-307, March.
    16. Goodell, John W. & McGee, Richard J. & McGroarty, Frank, 2020. "Election uncertainty, economic policy uncertainty and financial market uncertainty: A prediction market analysis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    17. Judson Caskey & Volker Laux, 2017. "Corporate Governance, Accounting Conservatism, and Manipulation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(2), pages 424-437, February.
    18. Zhang, JingJing & Guan, Jiancheng, 2018. "The time-varying impacts of government incentives on innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 132-144.
    19. Hui, Kai Wai & Klasa, Sandy & Yeung, P. Eric, 2012. "Corporate suppliers and customers and accounting conservatism," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 115-135.
    20. Anderson, Evan W. & Ghysels, Eric & Juergens, Jennifer L., 2009. "The impact of risk and uncertainty on expected returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 233-263, November.
    21. Jingjing Xu & Yan Zhang & Yizhe Xie, 2020. "Controlling Shareholder’s Share Pledging and Firm’s Auditor Choice," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(4), pages 750-770, March.
    22. Ball, Ray & Kothari, S. P. & Robin, Ashok, 2000. "The effect of international institutional factors on properties of accounting earnings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 1-51, February.
    23. Basu, Sudipta, 1997. "The conservatism principle and the asymmetric timeliness of earnings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 3-37, December.
    24. Valencia, Fabián, 2017. "Aggregate uncertainty and the supply of credit," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 150-165.
    25. Itamar Drechsler, 2013. "Uncertainty, Time-Varying Fear, and Asset Prices," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(5), pages 1843-1889, October.
    26. Schrand, Catherine M. & Zechman, Sarah L.C., 2012. "Executive overconfidence and the slippery slope to financial misreporting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 311-329.
    27. Li, Wanli & Zhou, Jingting & Yan, Ziqiao & Zhang, He, 2020. "Controlling shareholder share pledging and firm cash dividends," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    28. Paul Brockman & Tao Ma & Jianfang Ye, 2015. "CEO Compensation Risk and Timely Loss Recognition," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(1-2), pages 204-236, January.
    29. Goodell, John W. & Goyal, Abhinav & Urquhart, Andrew, 2021. "Uncertainty of uncertainty and firm cash holdings," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    30. Steven N. Kaplan & Luigi Zingales, 1997. "Do Investment-Cash Flow Sensitivities Provide Useful Measures of Financing Constraints?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 169-215.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Cui, Xin & Wang, Chunfeng & Sensoy, Ahmet & Liao, Jing & Xie, Xiaochen, 2023. "Economic policy uncertainty and green innovation: Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    2. Anagnostopoulou, Seraina C. & Tsekrekos, Andrianos E. & Voulgaris, Georgios, 2021. "Accounting conservatism and corporate social responsibility," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(4).
    3. Iván Alfaro & Nicholas Bloom & Xiaoji Lin, 2024. "The Finance Uncertainty Multiplier," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 132(2), pages 577-615.
    4. Sun, Zeyu & Yang, Ge & Bai, Haichen, 2023. "The spillover effect of customers' financial risk on suppliers' conservative reporting: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    5. Jianyu Zhao & Jing Qu & Lei Wang, 2023. "Heterogeneous institutional investors, environmental information disclosure and debt financing pressure," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 27(1), pages 253-296, March.
    6. Shang, Longfei & Lin, Ji-Chai & Saffar, Walid, 2021. "Does economic policy uncertainty drive the initiation of corporate lobbying?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    7. Zhou, Yuqin & Liu, Zhenhua & Wu, Shan, 2022. "The global economic policy uncertainty spillover analysis: In the background of COVID-19 pandemic," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    8. Nguyen, Duc Nguyen & Nguyen, Canh Phuc & Dang, Le Phuong Xuan, 2022. "Uncertainty and corporate default risk: Novel evidence from emerging markets," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    9. Cao, Yuqiang & Li, Chenglin & Liu, Xinghe & Lu, Meiting & Shan, Yaowen, 2022. "Economic policy uncertainty and debt allocation within business groups," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    10. Mo Chen & Xuhua Hu & Jijian Zhang & Zhe Xu & Guang Yang & Zenan Sun, 2023. "Are Firms More Willing to Seek Green Technology Innovation in the Context of Economic Policy Uncertainty? —Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-24, September.
    11. Liu, Tingli & Chen, Xiao & Yang, Songling, 2022. "Economic policy uncertainty and enterprise investment decision: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    12. Nianhang Xu & Xinzhong Xu & Qingbo Yuan, 2013. "Political Connections, Financing Friction, and Corporate Investment: Evidence from Chinese Listed Family Firms," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 19(4), pages 675-702, September.
    13. Huang, Winifred & Mazouz, Khelifa, 2018. "Excess cash, trading continuity, and liquidity risk," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 275-291.
    14. Liu, Guanchun & Zhang, Chengsi, 2020. "Economic policy uncertainty and firms' investment and financing decisions in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    15. Ma, Huanyu & Hao, Dapeng, 2022. "Economic policy uncertainty, financial development, and financial constraints: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 368-386.
    16. Zhang, Yanlei & García Lara, Juan Manuel & Tribó, Josep A., 2020. "Unpacking the black box of trade credit to socially responsible customers," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    17. Goodell, John W. & Goyal, Abhinav & Urquhart, Andrew, 2021. "Uncertainty of uncertainty and firm cash holdings," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    18. Di Gao & Yuan Zhao & Jiangming Ma, 2023. "How Does Supply Chain Information Disclosure Relate to Corporate Investment Efficiency? Evidence from Chinese-Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-22, April.
    19. Wen, Huwei & Lee, Chien-Chiang & Zhou, Fengxiu, 2022. "How does fiscal policy uncertainty affect corporate innovation investment? Evidence from China's new energy industry," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    20. Duong, Huu Nhan & Nguyen, Justin Hung & Nguyen, My & Rhee, S. Ghon, 2020. "Navigating through economic policy uncertainty: The role of corporate cash holdings," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Uncertainty of uncertainty; Accounting conservatism; Contract demand;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - 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:eee:finlet:v:52:y:2023:i:c:s1544612322007012. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    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.