IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/crpeac/v26y2015icp157-167.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A selective critical review of financial accounting research

Author

Listed:
  • Callen, Jeffrey L.

Abstract

This essay provides a selective critical review of the financial accounting literature focusing primarily on accounting valuation including implied costs of equity capital, empirical accounting proxies, and frictions in accounting theory. In the opinion of this author, accounting research in these areas is often too complacent, suffering from a lack of critical reasoning. Complacency distorts research innovation and hinders the long-run sustainability of accounting academe in the area of financial accounting. The examples discussed in this essay include (but are not limited to) the issue of structural modeling and model falsifiability; determining whether a firm is over or underpriced based on valuation models that do not allow for such phenomena; arbitrarily “merging” two disparate models one for valuation and one for the discount rate; failing to appreciate the empirical limitations induced by risk-neutral valuation models in estimating costs of capital; employing the same proxies over and over again that ostensibly have no underlying theoretical bases; estimating regressions that necessarily yield biased coefficients when the econometrics literature provides ready solutions; and generating complex models absent the frictions that are essential to the issue being researched.

Suggested Citation

  • Callen, Jeffrey L., 2015. "A selective critical review of financial accounting research," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 157-167.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:26:y:2015:i:c:p:157-167
    DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2013.03.008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1045235413000725
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.cpa.2013.03.008?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. James J. Heckman, 1976. "The Common Structure of Statistical Models of Truncation, Sample Selection and Limited Dependent Variables and a Simple Estimator for Such Models," NBER Chapters, in: Annals of Economic and Social Measurement, Volume 5, number 4, pages 475-492, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. David Easley & Soeren Hvidkjaer & Maureen O'Hara, 2002. "Is Information Risk a Determinant of Asset Returns?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(5), pages 2185-2221, October.
    3. Anne Beyer & Ilan Guttman, 2012. "Voluntary Disclosure, Manipulation, and Real Effects," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(5), pages 1141-1177, December.
    4. Xiaoqiang Hu & Fabio Schiantarelli, 1998. "Investment And Capital Market Imperfections: A Switching Regression Approach Using U.S. Firm Panel Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 80(3), pages 466-479, August.
    5. Roychowdhury, Sugata, 2006. "Earnings management through real activities manipulation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 335-370, December.
    6. Lee, Lung-Fei, 1983. "Generalized Econometric Models with Selectivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(2), pages 507-512, March.
    7. Khan, Mozaffar & Watts, Ross L., 2009. "Estimation and empirical properties of a firm-year measure of accounting conservatism," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2-3), pages 132-150, December.
    8. Dechow, Patricia M. & Hutton, Amy P. & Sloan, Richard G., 1999. "An empirical assessment of the residual income valuation model1," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1-3), pages 1-34, January.
    9. Lung-Fei Lee, 1982. "Some Approaches to the Correction of Selectivity Bias," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 49(3), pages 355-372.
    10. Frank Gigler & Chandra Kanodia & Haresh Sapra & Raghu Venugopalan, 2009. "Accounting Conservatism and the Efficiency of Debt Contracts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3), pages 767-797, June.
    11. Charles M. C. Lee & James Myers & Bhaskaran Swaminathan, 1999. "What is the Intrinsic Value of the Dow?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(5), pages 1693-1741, October.
    12. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    13. Jeffrey L. Callen, 2009. "Shocks to Shocks: A Theoretical Foundation for the Information Content of Earnings," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(1), pages 135-166, March.
    14. Bar Yosef, Sasson & Callen, Jeffrey L & Livnat, Joshua, 1987. "Autoregressive Modeling of Earnings-Investment Causality," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(1), pages 11-28, March.
    15. Guillaume Plantin & Haresh Sapra & Hyun Song Shin, 2008. "Marking‐to‐Market: Panacea or Pandora's Box?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(2), pages 435-460, May.
    16. Engsted, Tom & Pedersen, Thomas Q. & Tanggaard, Carsten, 2012. "Pitfalls in VAR based return decompositions: A clarification," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 1255-1265.
    17. Thomas Hemmer, 2008. "Discussion of Marking‐to‐Market: Panacea or Pandora's Box?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(2), pages 461-466, May.
    18. Maddala, G.S., 1986. "Disequilibrium, self-selection, and switching models," Handbook of Econometrics, in: Z. Griliches† & M. D. Intriligator (ed.), Handbook of Econometrics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 28, pages 1633-1688, Elsevier.
    19. Aggarwal, Rajesh K. & Evans, Mark E. & Nanda, Dhananjay, 2012. "Nonprofit boards: Size, performance and managerial incentives," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 466-487.
    20. Jeffrey L. Callen & Ole‐Kristian Hope & Dan Segal, 2005. "Domestic and Foreign Earnings, Stock Return Variability, and the Impact of Investor Sophistication," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(3), pages 377-412, June.
    21. Gilles Hilary & Gary C. Biddle, 2006. "Accounting Quality and Firm-Level Capital Investment," Post-Print hal-00481720, HAL.
    22. 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.
    23. Tuomo Vuolteenaho, 2002. "What Drives Firm‐Level Stock Returns?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(1), pages 233-264, February.
    24. Biddle, Gary C. & Hilary, Gilles & Verdi, Rodrigo S., 2009. "How does financial reporting quality relate to investment efficiency?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2-3), pages 112-131, December.
    25. Jeffrey L. Callen & Dan Segal, 2004. "Do Accruals Drive Firm‐Level Stock Returns? A Variance Decomposition Analysis," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(3), pages 527-560, June.
    26. Michelle H. Yetman & Robert J. Yetman, 2012. "The Effects of Governance on the Accuracy of Charitable Expenses Reported by Nonprofit Organizations," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(3), pages 738-767, September.
    27. Christine A. Botosan & Marlene A. Plumlee & HE Wen, 2011. "The Relation between Expected Returns, Realized Returns, and Firm Risk Characteristics," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(4), pages 1085-1122, December.
    28. Christine A. Botosan & Marlene A. Plumlee, 2002. "A Re‐examination of Disclosure Level and the Expected Cost of Equity Capital," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 21-40, March.
    29. Callen, Jeffrey L & Morel, Mindy, 2001. "Linear Accounting Valuation When Abnormal Earnings Are AR(2)," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 191-203, May.
    30. Aivazian, Varouj A & Callen, Jeffrey L, 1979. "Investment, Market Structure, and the Cost of Capital," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 34(1), pages 85-92, March.
    31. Edwin J. Elton, 1999. "Presidential Address: Expected Return, Realized Return, and Asset Pricing Tests," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(4), pages 1199-1220, August.
    32. Pope, PF & Walker, M, 1999. "International differences in the timeliness, conservatism, and classification of earnings," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37, pages 53-87.
    33. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:6:p:2745-2783 is not listed on IDEAS
    34. Easton, Peter, 2009. "Estimating the Cost of Capital Implied by Market Prices and Accounting Data," Foundations and Trends(R) in Accounting, now publishers, vol. 2(4), pages 241-364, January.
    35. Feltham, GA & Ohlson, JA, 1996. "Uncertainty resolution and the theory of depreciation measurement," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 209-234.
    36. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:4:p:1481-1509 is not listed on IDEAS
    37. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Endenich, Christoph & Trapp, Rouven, 2018. "Signaling effects of scholarly profiles – The editorial teams of North American accounting association journals," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 4-23.
    2. Brooks, Chris & Fenton, Evelyn & Schopohl, Lisa & Walker, James, 2019. "Why does research in finance have so little impact?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 24-52.
    3. Verdier, Marie-Anne & Boutant Lapeyre, Jennifer, 2023. "The myth of workforce reduction efficiency: The performativity of accounting language," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    4. Tiago Cardao-Pito, 2017. "Classes in Maximizing Shareholders’ Wealth: Irving Fisher’s Theory of the Economic Organization in Corporate Financial Economics Textbooks," Contemporary Economics, University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw., vol. 11(4), December.
    5. Palea, Vera & Biancone, Paolo Pietro, 2017. "Which Accounting Rules for Economic and Social Sustainable Development? Engaging Critically with IFRS Adoption in the EU," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201733, University of Turin.
    6. Palea, Vera, 2017. "Whither accounting research? A European view," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 59-73.
    7. Palea, Vera, 2015. "Journal Rankings and the Sustainability of Diversity in Accounting Research," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201546, University of Turin.
    8. Palea, Vera, 2018. "Financial reporting for sustainable development: Critical insights into IFRS implementation in the European Union," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 248-260.
    9. Kh Khaled Kalam & An-Nisha Khatoon, 2020. "Conventional and Islamic Bank Stability in Bangladesh using NPL Model," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 4(6), pages 26-35, June.

    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. Jeffrey L. Callen, 2016. "Accounting Valuation and Cost of Equity Capital Dynamics," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 52(1), pages 5-25, March.
    2. Beyer, Anne & Cohen, Daniel A. & Lys, Thomas Z. & Walther, Beverly R., 2010. "The financial reporting environment: Review of the recent literature," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 296-343, December.
    3. Biehl, Henrike & Bleibtreu, Christopher & Stefani, Ulrike, 2024. "The real effects of financial reporting: Evidence and suggestions for future research," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    4. Echterling, F. & Eierle, B. & Ketterer, S., 2015. "A review of the literature on methods of computing the implied cost of capital," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 235-252.
    5. Schreder, Max, 2018. "Idiosyncratic information and the cost of equity capital: A meta-analytic review of the literature," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 142-172.
    6. Dechow, Patricia & Ge, Weili & Schrand, Catherine, 2010. "Understanding earnings quality: A review of the proxies, their determinants and their consequences," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 344-401, December.
    7. Loureiro, Gilberto & Silva, Sónia, 2022. "Earnings management and stock price crashes post U.S. cross-delistings," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    8. Lyle, Matthew R. & Wang, Charles C.Y., 2015. "The cross section of expected holding period returns and their dynamics: A present value approach," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(3), pages 505-525.
    9. Jeffrey L. Callen & Matthew R. Lyle, 2020. "The term structure of implied costs of equity capital," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 342-404, March.
    10. Hwang, Lee-Seok & Lee, Woo-Jong & Lim, Seung-Yeon & Park, Kyung-Ho, 2013. "Does information risk affect the implied cost of equity capital? An analysis of PIN and adjusted PIN," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 148-167.
    11. Luc Paugam & Olivier Ramond, 2015. "Effect of Impairment-Testing Disclosures on the Cost of Equity Capital," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(5-6), pages 583-618, June.
    12. Araceli Mora & Martin Walker, 2015. "The implications of research on accounting conservatism for accounting standard setting," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(5), pages 620-650, August.
    13. Roychowdhury, Sugata & Shroff, Nemit & Verdi, Rodrigo S., 2019. "The effects of financial reporting and disclosure on corporate investment: A review," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2).
    14. Yu, Zeng, 2024. "Essays on incentive contract and corporate finance," Other publications TiSEM 6f66f49e-d710-44f6-943d-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    15. Wu, Ming & Ohk, Kiyool & Ko, Kwangsoo, 2019. "Are cash-flow betas really bad? Evidence from the Greater Chinese stock markets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 58-68.
    16. Maio, Paulo & Philip, Dennis, 2015. "Macro variables and the components of stock returns," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 287-308.
    17. Anagnostopoulou, Seraina C. & Tsekrekos, Andrianos E. & Voulgaris, Georgios, 2021. "Accounting conservatism and corporate social responsibility," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(4).
    18. Kothari, S. P., 2001. "Capital markets research in accounting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 105-231, September.
    19. Ham, John C. & Kagel, John H. & Lehrer, Steven F., 2005. "Randomization, endogeneity and laboratory experiments: the role of cash balances in private value auctions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 125(1-2), pages 175-205.
    20. Clatworthy, Mark A & Pong, Christopher K.M. & Wong, Woon K., 2009. "Auditor Quality and the Role of Accounting Information in Explaining UK Stock Returns," Cardiff Economics Working Papers E2009/9, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section, revised Oct 2011.

    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:crpeac:v:26:y:2015:i:c:p:157-167. 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: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/critical-perspectives-on-accounting/ .

    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.