The quality of accruals and earnings: The role of accrual estimation errors
The quality of accruals and earnings: The role of accrual estimation errors
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DOI：
10.2308/accr.2002.77.s-1.35
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发表时间：
2002-01-01
影响因子：
4.1
通讯作者：
Dichev, ID
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Dechow, PM;Dichev, ID
本文提出了一种衡量营运资金应计项目和盈余质量的新方法。应计制的一个作用是随着时间的推移转移或调整对现金流量的确认，以便调整后的数字（收益）更好地衡量公司业绩。但是，应计项目需要对未来现金流量进行假设和估计。我们认为应计项目和盈余的质量随着应计项目估计误差的大小而下降。我们从企业对过去、现在和未来经营现金流的营运资本变化的具体回归中得出应计质量的经验度量。我们证明，可观察的公司特征可以用作权责发生制质量的工具（例如，应计项目的波动性和收益的波动性）。最后，我们表明我们对应计质量的衡量与盈余持续性呈正相关。
This paper suggests a new measure of one aspect of the quality of working capital accruals and earnings. One role of accruals is to shift or adjust the recognition of cash flows over time so that the adjusted numbers (earnings) better measure firm performance. However, accruals require assumptions and estimates of future cash flows. We argue that the quality of accruals and earnings is decreasing in the magnitude of estimation error in accruals. We derive an empirical measure of accrual quality as the residuals from firm-specific regressions of changes in working capital on past, present, and future operating cash flows. We document that observable firm characteristics can be used as instruments for accrual quality (e.g., volatility of accruals and volatility of earnings). Finally, we show that our measure of accrual quality is positively related to earnings persistence.