Knowledge that Transforms

ABSTRACT Managers must understand relations among costs in order to make decisions. Prior literature assumes managers' use of cost accounting system output is affected by the information coming from the system, but not by the design of the cost system itself. This study examines how the classification of costs into cost pools affects the accuracy of individuals' understanding of relations among costs. I hypothesize that individuals will estimate relations between costs in the same cost pool first and thus more accurately than relations across different pools, because cost pools provide strong cues that meaningful relations are likely to exist within, but not across, pools. I also hypothesize that cost location (within- versus across-pool) has a greater effect on individuals' judgment accuracy when relations among costs are negative than when they are positive. Experimental results are generally consistent with these hypotheses. This experiment shows that cost pool classification choices not only affect the information managers receive, but also their interpretation and use of that information. Data Availability: Contact the author.

ABSTRACT Gains and losses reported as other comprehensive income (OCI) and as special items (SI) are often viewed as similar in nature: transitory items with little ability to predict future cash flows and minimal implications for company value. However, current accounting standards require SI gains and losses to be recognized in net income, while OCI gains and losses are deferred until realized. This study empirically compares OCI and SI gains and losses using a model that jointly estimates value relevance, predictive value, and persistence. Results show that both SI and OCI gains and losses are value-relevant, but SI gains and losses exhibit zero persistence (i.e., are transitory), while OCI gains and losses exhibit negative persistence (i.e., partially reverse over time). Further, we find that SI gains and losses have strong predictive value for forecasting both future net income and future cash flows, while OCI gains and losses have weaker predictive value. Data Availability: All data are publicly available from sources indicated in the text.

Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Citation Steven J. Kachelmeier; Annual Report and Editorial Commentary for The Accounting Review. The Accounting Review 1 November 2011; 86 (6): 2197–2233. https://doi.org/10.2308/accr-10141 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentThe Accounting Review Search Advanced Search

ABSTRACT: This paper develops a model of financing that jointly determines a firm’s capital structure, its voluntary disclosure policy, and its cost of capital. Investors who receive securities in return for supplying capital sometimes incur losses when they trade their securities with an informed trader. The firm’s disclosure policy and the structure of its securities determine the information advantage of the informed trader and, hence, the size of investors’ trading losses and the firm’s cost of capital. We establish a hierarchy of optimal securities and disclosure policies that varies with the volatility of the firm’s cash flows. Debt securities are often optimal, with the form of debt—risk-free, investment grade, or “junk”—varying with the firm’s cash flow volatility. Though the model predicts a negative association between firms’ cost of capital and the extent of information firms disclose, more expansive voluntary disclosure does not cause firms’ cost of capital to decline. Mandatory disclosures alter firms’ voluntary disclosures, their capital structure choices, and their cost of capital.

ABSTRACT: This study addresses whether firms’ share prices correctly reflect two accounting measures: dirty surplus and really dirty surplus. Dirty surplus is readily observable from the financial statements, but really dirty surplus, which arises from recognizing equity transactions such as employee stock option exercises at other than fair market value, is not. Findings show that dirty surplus and really dirty surplus are irrelevant for forecasting abnormal comprehensive income. However, findings also indicate that investors appear to undervalue really dirty surplus. Hedge returns are insignificant when portfolios are formed based on dirty surplus, but are significantly positive based on really dirty surplus. Really dirty surplus positive hedge returns are robust to a variety of sensitivity tests. Taken together, the findings are consistent with either investors over-valuing firms that have large negative really dirty surplus or really dirty surplus being correlated with an unmodeled risk factor.

ABSTRACT: This study examines the effect of the readability of firms’ written communication on the behavior of sell-side financial analysts. Using a measure of the readability of corporate 10-K filings, we document that analyst following, the amount of effort incurred to generate their reports, and the informativeness of their reports are greater for firms with less readable 10-Ks. Additionally, we find that less readable 10-Ks are associated with greater dispersion, lower accuracy, and greater overall uncertainty in analyst earnings forecasts. Overall, our results are consistent with the prediction of an increasing demand for analyst services for firms with less readable communication and a greater collective effort by analysts for firms with less readable disclosures. Our results contribute to the understanding of the role of analysts as information intermediaries for investors and the effect of the complexity of written financial communication on the usefulness of this information.