Reporting Conservatism, Loss Reversals, and Earnings-based Valuation

We study the determinants of losses and their increased frequency over time to understand their implications for the use of financial statements in valuation. We find the properties of losses change between 1971-2000 both in terms of th...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Joos, Peter R., Plesko, George A.
Format: Working Paper
Language:en_US
Published: 2003
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/1855
_version_ 1826190760815362048
author Joos, Peter R.
Plesko, George A.
author_facet Joos, Peter R.
Plesko, George A.
author_sort Joos, Peter R.
collection MIT
description We study the determinants of losses and their increased frequency over time to understand their implications for the use of financial statements in valuation. We find the properties of losses change between 1971-2000 both in terms of the cash flow and accruals components. Departing from prior research, we explicitly model the estimated likelihood of loss reversal. We find firms estimated to be least likely to reverse have unusually large negative cash flows and accruals, comprised of relatively large amounts of R&D expenditures and Special Items. We also find the market assesses both the effect of reporting conservatism and the attractiveness of abandoning the investment in the firm when it prices losses. We interpret this as evidence that the probability of loss reversal summarizes financial information useful to investors and serves as a proxy for the earning power of assets when the firm reports a los
first_indexed 2024-09-23T08:44:58Z
format Working Paper
id mit-1721.1/1855
institution Massachusetts Institute of Technology
language en_US
last_indexed 2024-09-23T08:44:58Z
publishDate 2003
record_format dspace
spelling mit-1721.1/18552019-04-10T07:18:35Z Reporting Conservatism, Loss Reversals, and Earnings-based Valuation Joos, Peter R. Plesko, George A. Earnings Losses Conservatism Cash Flows Accruals We study the determinants of losses and their increased frequency over time to understand their implications for the use of financial statements in valuation. We find the properties of losses change between 1971-2000 both in terms of the cash flow and accruals components. Departing from prior research, we explicitly model the estimated likelihood of loss reversal. We find firms estimated to be least likely to reverse have unusually large negative cash flows and accruals, comprised of relatively large amounts of R&D expenditures and Special Items. We also find the market assesses both the effect of reporting conservatism and the attractiveness of abandoning the investment in the firm when it prices losses. We interpret this as evidence that the probability of loss reversal summarizes financial information useful to investors and serves as a proxy for the earning power of assets when the firm reports a los 2003-04-14T20:25:32Z 2003-04-14T20:25:32Z 2003-04-14T20:25:32Z Working Paper http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/1855 en_US MIT Sloan School of Management Working Paper;4262-02 133217 bytes application/pdf application/pdf
spellingShingle Earnings
Losses
Conservatism
Cash Flows
Accruals
Joos, Peter R.
Plesko, George A.
Reporting Conservatism, Loss Reversals, and Earnings-based Valuation
title Reporting Conservatism, Loss Reversals, and Earnings-based Valuation
title_full Reporting Conservatism, Loss Reversals, and Earnings-based Valuation
title_fullStr Reporting Conservatism, Loss Reversals, and Earnings-based Valuation
title_full_unstemmed Reporting Conservatism, Loss Reversals, and Earnings-based Valuation
title_short Reporting Conservatism, Loss Reversals, and Earnings-based Valuation
title_sort reporting conservatism loss reversals and earnings based valuation
topic Earnings
Losses
Conservatism
Cash Flows
Accruals
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/1855
work_keys_str_mv AT joospeterr reportingconservatismlossreversalsandearningsbasedvaluation
AT pleskogeorgea reportingconservatismlossreversalsandearningsbasedvaluation