IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i20p13449-d946213.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Disentangling Relevance from Reliability in Value Relevance Tests

Author

Listed:
  • Efrat Shust

    (The Department of Management and Economics, The Open University of Israel, Ra’anana 4353701, Israel)

  • Dan Weiss

    (Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel)

Abstract

The literature shows that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the value relevance of earnings decreased. Traditionally, the literature measures value relevance using the relationship between stock returns and earnings. However, these tests are, in fact, “joint tests of relevance and reliability”. This caveat can distort the measurement of relevance, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic where the exceptional level of uncertainty could have affected relevance and reliability to different extents. This study disentangles reliability and relevance by extending the value relevance test. We use this extended test to examine firm categories in two dimensions: profits versus losses and intensive versus scarce use of accounting estimates. The results show that reliability and relevance are complementary when both are sufficiently high, but reliability has no significant impact on the usefulness of earnings when relevance is weak.

Suggested Citation

  • Efrat Shust & Dan Weiss, 2022. "Disentangling Relevance from Reliability in Value Relevance Tests," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-15, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:20:p:13449-:d:946213
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/20/13449/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/20/13449/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mary E. Barth & Wayne R. Landsman & Mark H. Lang, 2008. "International Accounting Standards and Accounting Quality," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 467-498, June.
    2. Amir, Eli & Lev, Baruch, 1996. "Value-relevance of nonfinancial information: The wireless communications industry," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1-3), pages 3-30, October.
    3. Butler, Marty & Leone, Andrew J. & Willenborg, Michael, 2004. "An empirical analysis of auditor reporting and its association with abnormal accruals," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 139-165, June.
    4. 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.
    5. Harris, Ts & Lang, M & Moller, Hp, 1994. "The Value Relevance Of German Accounting Measures - An Empirical-Analysis," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 187-209.
    6. Barth, Mary E. & Beaver, William H. & Landsman, Wayne R., 2001. "The relevance of the value relevance literature for financial accounting standard setting: another view," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 77-104, September.
    7. Paul Gompers & Joy Ishii & Andrew Metrick, 2003. "Corporate Governance and Equity Prices," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(1), pages 107-156.
    8. Doyle, Jeffrey & Ge, Weili & McVay, Sarah, 2007. "Determinants of weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1-2), pages 193-223, September.
    9. Ashbaugh-Skaife, Hollis & Collins, Daniel W. & Kinney Jr., William R., 2007. "The discovery and reporting of internal control deficiencies prior to SOX-mandated audits," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1-2), pages 166-192, September.
    10. Amir, E & Harris, Ts & Venuti, Ek, 1993. "A Comparison Of The Value-Relevance Of United-States Versus Non-United-States Gaap Accounting Measures Using Form-20-F Reconciliations," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31, pages 230-264.
    11. Tiago Gonçalves & Cristina Gaio & André Ferro, 2021. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Earnings Management: Moderating Impact of Economic Cycles and Financial Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-14, September.
    12. Chaechang Im & Giseok Nam, 2019. "Does Ethical Behavior of Management Influence Financial Reporting Quality?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-16, October.
    13. Roychowdhury, Sugata, 2006. "Earnings management through real activities manipulation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 335-370, December.
    14. Subramanyam, K. R., 1996. "The pricing of discretionary accruals," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1-3), pages 249-281, October.
    15. Alastair Lawrence & Richard Sloan & Estelle Sun, 2018. "Why Are Losses Less Persistent Than Profits? Curtailments vs. Conservatism," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(2), pages 673-694, February.
    16. Lev, B & Zarowin, P, 1999. "The boundaries of financial reporting and how to extend them," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 353-385.
    17. Francis, Jennifer & LaFond, Ryan & Olsson, Per & Schipper, Katherine, 2005. "The market pricing of accruals quality," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 295-327, June.
    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. Lev, B & Thiagarajan, Sr, 1993. "Fundamental Information Analysis," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 190-215.
    20. Haeyoung Ryu & Soo-Joon Chae & Bomi Song, 2021. "Corporate Social Responsibility, Audit Committee Expertise, and Financial Reporting: Empirical Evidence from Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-14, September.
    21. Zaremba, Adam & Kizys, Renatas & Aharon, David Y. & Demir, Ender, 2020. "Infected Markets: Novel Coronavirus, Government Interventions, and Stock Return Volatility around the Globe," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 35(C).
    22. Gavana, Giovanna & Gottardo, Pietro & Moisello, Anna Maria, 2020. "Did the switch to IFRS 11 for joint ventures affect the value relevance of corporate consolidated financial statements? Evidence from France and Italy," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    23. Piotroski, JD, 2000. "Value investing: The use of historical financial statement information to separate winners from losers," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38, pages 1-41.
    24. Barth, ME & Clinch, G, 1998. "Revalued financial, tangible, and intangible assets: Associations with share prices and non-market-based value estimates," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36, pages 199-233.
    25. Kihoon Hong & Jinhee Kim & So Yean Kwack, 2022. "External Monitoring, ESG, and Information Content of Discretionary Accruals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-15, June.
    26. Francis, J & Schipper, K, 1999. "Have financial statements lost their relevance?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 319-352.
    27. Joanna Lizińska & Leszek Czapiewski, 2018. "Towards Economic Corporate Sustainability in Reporting: What Does Earnings Management around Equity Offerings Mean for Long-Term Performance?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-23, November.
    28. Menachem (Meni) Abudy & Efrat Shust, 2020. "What Happens to Trading Volume When the Regulator Bans Voluntary Disclosure?," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 555-580, May.
    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. Hui Zhou, 2023. "Hedging Performance and Fair-Value Financial Reporting: Evidence from Bank Holding Companies," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-16, January.

    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. 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.
    2. Shan, Yuan George, 2015. "Value relevance, earnings management and corporate governance in China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 186-207.
    3. Goncharov, Igor & Werner, Joerg R. & Zimmermann, Jochen, 2009. "Legislative demands and economic realities: Company and group accounts compared," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 44(4), pages 334-362, December.
    4. Fargher, Neil & Wee, Marvin, 2019. "The impact of Ball and Brown (1968) on generations of research," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 55-72.
    5. Mohamed Sellami, 2006. "Typologie des déterminants comptables de la valeur : Apports de l'approche économique de l'information dans la mesure de la valeur," Post-Print halshs-00558252, HAL.
    6. Tahat, Yasean A. & Alhadab, Mohammad, 2017. "Have accounting numbers lost their value relevance during the recent financial credit crisis?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 182-191.
    7. Stoel, M. Dale & Muhanna, Waleed A., 2011. "IT internal control weaknesses and firm performance: An organizational liability lens," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 280-304.
    8. Abdulrahman Alomair & Alan Farley & Helen Hong Yang, 2022. "The impact of IFRS adoption on the value relevance of accounting information in Saudi Arabia," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(2), pages 2839-2878, June.
    9. Koji Ota, 2010. "The Value Relevance of Management Forecasts and Their Impact on Analysts' Forecasts: Empirical Evidence From Japan," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 46(1), pages 28-59, March.
    10. Devalle, Alain & Magarini, Riccardo & Onali, Enrico, 2009. "Assessing the Value Relevance of Accounting Data After the Introduction of IFRS in Europe," MPRA Paper 56174, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 08 Oct 2009.
    11. Dhiaa Shamki, 2012. "Impact of Non Accounting Information on The Value Relevance of Accounting Information: The Case of Jordan," International Journal of Business and Social Research, LAR Center Press, vol. 2(1), pages 9-24, February.
    12. Rajgopal, Shiva & Venkatachalam, Mohan, 2011. "Financial reporting quality and idiosyncratic return volatility," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 1-20.
    13. Pierre Thijssen, Maximiliaan Willem & Iatridis, George Emmanuel, 2016. "Conditional conservatism and value relevance of financial reporting: A study in view of converging accounting standards," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 37, pages 48-70.
    14. Rajgopal, Shiva & Venkatachalam, Mohan, 2011. "Financial reporting quality and idiosyncratic return volatility," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1-2), pages 1-20, February.
    15. Igor Goncharov & David Veenman, 2014. "Stale and Scale Effects in Markets-Based Accounting Research: Evidence from the Valuation of Dividends," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(1), pages 25-55, May.
    16. 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.
    17. Misund, Bård & Asche, Frank & Osmundsen, Petter, 2008. "Industry upheaval and valuation: Empirical evidence from the international oil and gas industry," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 398-424, December.
    18. Dhiaa Shamki, 2012. "Impact of Non Accounting Information on The Value Relevance of Accounting Information: The Case of Jordan," International Journal of Business and Social Research, MIR Center for Socio-Economic Research, vol. 2(1), pages 9-24, February.
    19. Christian Leuz & Peter D. Wysocki, 2016. "The Economics of Disclosure and Financial Reporting Regulation: Evidence and Suggestions for Future Research," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 525-622, May.
    20. Gjerde, Øystein & Knivsflå, Kjell & Sættem, Frode, 2011. "The value relevance of financial reporting in Norway 1965-2004," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 113-128, March.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:20:p:13449-:d:946213. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.