The Death of Accounting: Or Has the Announcement Been Greatly Exaggerated?

Abstract

This paper examines whether the relevance of accounting information for valuation and systematic risk assessment has declined in Australian during the last thirty years. Motivated by professional and analyst concerns that the relevance of accounting earnings and (possibly) balance sheets have continuously declined over time, a number of recent research papers appear to confirm this contention. In contrast, we find the value relevance of accounting earnings has not declined over time. Rather the nature of the relationship with stock prices has changed such that a linear model does not fully abstract the association. Once, the transitory components within the earnings stream are controlled, the relationship becomes as stable as the book value relationship. Moreover, the long-term risk relevance of accounting information has remained relatively stable over the last thirty years. We also find evidence of firm size and leverage effects