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Accounting Anomalies and Information Uncertainty

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Author Info
Francis, Jennifer (Duke University)
LaFond, Ryan (University of Wisconsin)
Olsson, Per () (Fuqua School of Business)
Schipper, Katherine (Financial Accounting Standards Board)
Abstract

We examine whether rational investor responses to information uncertainty explain properties of and returns to accounting-based trading anomalies. We proxy for information uncertainty with two measures of earnings quality: the standard deviation of the residuals from a Dechow and Dichev (2002) model relating accruals to cash flows, and the absolute value of performance-adjusted abnormal accruals from a modified Jones (1991) model. Over 1982-2001, we find that accounting-based trading anomalies (post-earnings announcement drift, value-glamour, and accruals strategies) are correlated with earnings quality. Specifically, extreme anomaly portfolios have poorer earnings quality than non-extreme portfolios, and within the extreme anomaly portfolios, poor earnings quality securities are more prevalent and earn larger abnormal returns than good earnings quality securities. Consistent with greater resolution of uncertainty for poor earnings quality securities, the abnormal returns to poor quality securities converge to the abnormal returns to good quality securities as the post-portfolio formation period lengthens. Taken as a whole, these results indicate that information uncertainty plays an important role in explaining accounting anomalies.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Institute for Financial Research in its series SIFR Research Report Series with number 13.

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Length: 53 pages
Date of creation: 15 Jun 2003
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Handle: RePEc:hhs:sifrwp:0013

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Related research
Keywords: Information; Cost of capital; Returns anomalies; Trading strategies;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information
G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies
M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting - - Accounting - - - Accounting

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References listed on IDEAS
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Bixia Xu, 2006. "R&D Progress, stock price volatility, and post-announcement drift: An empirical investigation into biotech firms," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 26(4), pages 391-408, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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