We examine the properties of a returns‐based representation of earnings quality, estimated from firm‐specific asset‐pricing regressions augmented by an earnings quality mimicking factor. The coefficient on the earnings quality factor (the “e‐loading”) captures the sensitivity of the firm's returns to earnings quality in a given year or quarter, analogous to beta as a measure of the sensitivity of returns to market movements. Relative to other proxies for earnings quality, e‐loadings can be calculated for larger samples of firms and can be estimated for shorter intervals at any point in time. Along all dimensions examined, we find that e‐loadings perform well in capturing notions of earnings quality.

We examine the properties of a returns-based representation of earnings quality, estimated from firm-specific asset-pricing regressions augmented by an earnings quality mimicking factor. The coefficient on the earnings quality factor (the “e-loading”) captures the sensitivity of the firm's returns to earnings quality in a given year or quarter, analogous to beta as a measure of the sensitivity of returns to market movements. Relative to other proxies for earnings quality, e-loadings can be calculated for larger samples of firms and can be estimated for shorter intervals at any point in time. Along all dimensions examined, we find that e-loadings perform well in capturing notions of earnings quality.