会计信息可比性、报告动机与现金持有市场价值

Financial Information Comparability,Reporting Incentive,and the Value of Cash Holding

可比性作为一项重要的会计信息质量特征,旨在帮助信息使用者理解和比较不同会计主体信息的异同,提高会计信息的决策有用性。不同于已有研究,本文把公司报告动机纳入分析框架,考察市场对公司现金持有量的定价,以评价可比性带来的经济收益和成本。本文以2007—2014年中国上市公司季度数据为研究样本,结果表明当公司具有报告较高信息含量会计信息的动机时,＂实质＂可比性能够显著提高公司的现金持有市场价值;当公司具有报告较低信息含量会计信息的动机时,＂名义＂可比性的提高反而会显著降低公司的现金持有市场价值。在使用公司固定效应方法和工具变量方法缓解内生性问题并排除其他替代性解释后,本文研究发现依然成立。本文结果有助于更加全面地理解会计信息可比性带来的经济收益和成本。

Comparability is a unique qualitative characteristic of financial information that enhances its usefulness. Different from previous studies, we examine the joint effect of reporting incentive and accounting comparability on the value of corporate cash holdings. Specifically,using the sample of Chinese listed firms during 2007—2014, the results show that accounting comparability in firms with incentive to report informative earnings increases with the value of cash holding. On the contrary,if firms have incentive to report less informative earnings, accounting comparability declines the value of cash holding. Our results suggest that reporting incentive dominates how accounting comparability affects the value of cash holding, which will give an insight to understand the benefits and costs from increased accounting comparability.