题目：Evolution in Value Relevance of Accounting Information （TAR2023）

摘要：We address how value relevance of accounting information evolved as the new economy developed. Prior research concludes that accounting information—primarily earnings—has lost relevance. We consider more accounting items and find no decline in combined value relevance from 1962 to 2018. We assess evolution in each item’s value relevance and find increases, most notably for items related to intangible assets, growth opportunities, and alternative performance measures, which are important in the new economy. The number of relevant items also increases. We also consider separately new economy, old economy profit, and old economy loss firms. The trends are more pronounced for, but extend beyond, new economy firms. We base inferences on a nonparametric approach that does not require specifying the valuation relation. Taken together, our findings reveal an evolution to a more nuanced, but not declining, relation between accounting information and share price.

过往发现会计信息价值相关性下降，主要从盈余的价值相关性出发；考虑更多新经济相关的会计指标后，研究发现会计信息价值相关性并未呈现下降趋势，主要增添无形资产、增长机会以及另类业绩测度等方面相关指标。

研究问题：The question we address is how the value relevance of accounting information evolved as the economy transitionedfrom primarily industrial to a “new economy” based on services and information technology.

Although we do not observe how investors use accounting information when assessing firm value, we can determine which items correlate more and less with share price.

We focus on information associated with features of the new economy, i.e., intangible assets,growth opportunities, and alternative performance measures, that accounting is well known not to faithfully represent.

Lev and Gu (2016) find that thevalue relevance of earnings and equity book value and a different set of four items, assets, revenue, COGS, and SGA,declines from 1950 to 2013 and proclaims the “end of accounting.”

In contrast, we expect an increase inSGA’s relevance because it includes many employee expenses, and firms in the new economy depend more onemployee-focused strategies (Peters and Taylor 2017).

Peters, R., and L. Taylor. 2017. Intangible Capital and the investment-q relation. Journal of Financial Economics 123 (2): 251–272. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2016.03.011