Publications on external reporting have played an important role in the first 100 years of The Accounting Review. The first 40 years featured publications prescribing desirable financial accounting principles. The next 45 years featured archival empirical research focusing on managers’ financial accounting choices and the use of financial accounting information by capital market participants. The most recent 15 years have been characterized by growth in research on sustainability reporting. I briefly summarize this research and propose opportunities for future research. Data Availability: Data are publicly available from sources indicated in the text.

Previous research finds that EPS growth rates are difficult to predict and reasons that much of the observed cross-sectional variation in valuation ratios is due to variation in implied future stock returns. Yet the observed cross-sectional relation between valuation ratios and realized future stock returns is weak. We revisit these findings using a refined measure of expected EPS growth rates and document robust evidence of predictability in EPS growth rates. Moreover, we find that this predictable growth extends beyond two years into the future and is strongly reflected in observed valuation ratios. We show that combining valuation ratios with our refined measure of expected EPS growth rates improves forecasts of stock returns, though return predictability remains weak. Thus, we conclude that most of the variation in valuation ratios is driven by predictable EPS growth.