IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/acctbr/v48y2018i5p465-493.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The deteriorating usefulness of financial report information and how to reverse it

Author

Listed:
  • Baruch Lev

Abstract

There is a wide-spread and growing dissatisfaction with the relevance and usefulness of financial report information, particularly among investors and corporate executives. The dissatisfaction is corroborated by extensive research which consistently documents a growing gap between capital market indicators and financial information, more so for reported earnings. The reported earnings of most firms no longer reflect enterprise performance. I trace the deterioration of the usefulness of financial information to: (1) the abandonment by accounting standard-setters of the traditional income statement (matching) model in favour of a balance sheet (asset valuation) model, and (2) standard-setters’ failure to adjust asset recognition rules to the fundamental shift in corporate value-creating resources from tangible to intangible assets. I conclude this paper with change proposals to restore the usefulness of financial information to investors.

Suggested Citation

  • Baruch Lev, 2018. "The deteriorating usefulness of financial report information and how to reverse it," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(5), pages 465-493, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:acctbr:v:48:y:2018:i:5:p:465-493
    DOI: 10.1080/00014788.2018.1470138
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00014788.2018.1470138
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00014788.2018.1470138?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. Bonsall, Samuel B. & Leone, Andrew J. & Miller, Brian P. & Rennekamp, Kristina, 2017. "A plain English measure of financial reporting readability," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 329-357.
    2. Demerjian, Peter R., 2011. "Accounting standards and debt covenants: Has the “balance sheet approach” led to a decline in the use of balance sheet covenants?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 178-202.
    3. Dyer, Travis & Lang, Mark & Stice-Lawrence, Lorien, 2017. "The evolution of 10-K textual disclosure: Evidence from Latent Dirichlet Allocation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 221-245.
    4. Paul M. Healy & Stewart C. Myers & Christopher D. Howe, 2002. "R&D Accounting and the Tradeoff Between Relevance and Objectivity," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(3), pages 677-710, June.
    5. Bhattacharya, Nilabhra & Black, Ervin L. & Christensen, Theodore E. & Larson, Chad R., 2003. "Assessing the relative informativeness and permanence of pro forma earnings and GAAP operating earnings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1-3), pages 285-319, December.
    6. Kevin K. Li & Richard G. Sloan, 2017. "Has goodwill accounting gone bad?," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 964-1003, June.
    7. Dichev, Ilia D. & Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Rajgopal, Shiva, 2013. "Earnings quality: Evidence from the field," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 1-33.
    8. Ilia D. Dichev, 2017. "On the conceptual foundations of financial reporting," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(6), pages 617-632, September.
    9. Peters, Ryan H. & Taylor, Lucian A., 2017. "Intangible capital and the investment-q relation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(2), pages 251-272.
    10. Srivastava, Anup, 2014. "Why have measures of earnings quality changed over time?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 196-217.
    11. Ester Chen & Ilanit Gavious & Baruch Lev, 2017. "The positive externalities of IFRS R&D capitalization: enhanced voluntary disclosure," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 677-714, June.
    12. Ijiri, Y., 1989. "Momentum Accounting And Triple-Entry Bookkeeping: Exploring The Dynamic Structure Of Accounting Measurements," GSIA Working Papers 88-89-35, Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business.
    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. Kim, Robert & Kim, Sangwan, 2021. "Does revenue-expense matching play a differential role in analysts’ earnings and revenue forecasts?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(5).
    2. Robert M. Bushman & Alina Lerman & X. Frank Zhang, 2016. "The Changing Landscape of Accrual Accounting," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 41-78, March.
    3. Pinto, Inês & Morais, Ana Isabel & Quick, Reiner, 2020. "The impact of the precision of accounting standards on the expanded auditor’s report in the European Union," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    4. Chychyla, Roman & Leone, Andrew J. & Minutti-Meza, Miguel, 2019. "Complexity of financial reporting standards and accounting expertise," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 226-253.
    5. Dinh, Tami & Schultze, Wolfgang, 2022. "Accounting for R&D on the income statement? Evidence on non-discretionary vs. discretionary R&D capitalization under IFRS in Germany," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    6. Angelos A. Antzoulatos & Dimitris Karanastasis & Thomas Syrmos, 2022. "The Puzzling Convergence of Intangible Investments," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 28(3), pages 171-182, November.
    7. Jeremiah Green & Henock Louis & Jalal Sani, 2022. "Intangible Investments, Scaling, and the Trend in the Accrual–Cash Flow Association," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(4), pages 1551-1582, September.
    8. Asher Curtis & Valerie Li & Paige H. Patrick, 2021. "The use of adjusted earnings in performance evaluation," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(4), pages 1290-1322, December.
    9. Alex Kim & Maximilian Muhn & Valeri Nikolaev, 2023. "Bloated Disclosures: Can ChatGPT Help Investors Process Information?," Papers 2306.10224, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2024.
    10. Rjiba, Hatem & Saadi, Samir & Boubaker, Sabri & Ding, Xiaoya (Sara), 2021. "Annual report readability and the cost of equity capital," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    11. Monica Laura Zlati & Valentin Marian Antohi & Petronela Cardon, 2019. "Correction of Accounting Errors through Post Balance Sheet Event Analysis for Romanian Companies," Economies, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-22, April.
    12. Jung Ho Choi, 2021. "Accrual Accounting and Resource Allocation: A General Equilibrium Analysis," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(4), pages 1179-1219, September.
    13. Liu, Xin & Yin, Chengxi & Zheng, Weinan, 2021. "The invisible burden," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    14. Blankespoor, Elizabeth & deHaan, Ed & Marinovic, Iván, 2020. "Disclosure processing costs, investors’ information choice, and equity market outcomes: A review," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2).
    15. Durnev, Art & Mangen, Claudine, 2020. "The spillover effects of MD&A disclosures for real investment: The role of industry competition," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1).
    16. Assaf Bar‐Hod & Ester Chen & Ilanit Gavious, 2021. "The economic consequences of fair value disclosures: a manifestation of the buried facts doctrine," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(S1), pages 1363-1413, April.
    17. Lin, Shu & Xia, Hui Harry & Ryabova, Tatyana, 2020. "The effect of analysts’ GAAP earnings forecasts on managers’ classification shifting," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3).
    18. Gordon, Elizabeth A. & Hsu, Hsiao-Tang & Huang, Huichi, 2020. "Peer R&D disclosure and corporate innovation: Evidence from American depositary receipt firms," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    19. Tatiana Fedyk & Zvi Singer & Mark Soliman, 2017. "The sharpest tool in the shed: IPO financial statement management of STEM vs. non-STEM firms," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 1541-1581, December.
    20. Graham, John R. & Grennan, Jillian & Harvey, Campbell R. & Rajgopal, Shivaram, 2022. "Corporate culture: Evidence from the field," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(2), pages 552-593.

    More about this item

    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:taf:acctbr:v:48:y:2018:i:5:p:465-493. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RABR20 .

    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.