The bias implied by conservatism in accounting and its impact on information risk in equity markets is the subject of considerable debate. On one hand, opponents of conservatism believe that any kind of biased information is actually misinformation and thus increases uncertainty. Perhaps most prominent among opponents of conservatism is the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). The FASB contends that accounting information should be neutralfree from bias; a bias in favor of reporting either good or bad news is inconsistent with representational faithfulness and neutrality. On the other hand, proponents of conservatism point to incentives of management to manipulate financial statements by exaggerating apparent good news and/or hiding apparent bad news. Proponents argue that the bias implied by conservatism is necessary to offset the asymmetric reporting incentives of the firms management, and in so doing, conservatism allegedly improves information quality and reduces information risk. Finally, results of at least one recent study do not favor either position, suggesting that conservatism has no effect on information quality in equity market. This study finds that the bias implied by conservatism (bias in favor of reporting bad news) increases information risk in equity markets and consequently the cost of equity capital. Findings further indicate that sufficiently aggressive bias also increases information risk. That is, the markets most aggressive firms, those reporting with a bias opposite that implied by conservatism, can reduce information risk by moving toward more neutral, unbiased reporting. Furthermore, the general effects of biased reporting (increased information risk) are consistent across all levels of information asymmetry among equity investors. These findings are interpreted as supporting the position of the FASB that biased accounting information increases information risk.

Prior studies report negative or insignificant relations between conditional conservatism and the cost of equity capital, arguing that conservatism reduces information risk. Using accounting-based conditional conservatism proxies, however, we find a significantly positive association between conditional conservatism and the cost of equity. This positive relation operates via improving information precision about negative earnings shocks and generally inflating information asymmetry among investors, both of which increase the cost of equity. We further find that the cost of equity effect of conditional conservatism disappears in the period after the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), consistent with the notion that nationwide improvement of information precision about negative news and diminished information asymmetry are engendered by the SOX regulation. This study adds to researches on conditional conservatism, SOX, and the cost of equity, and also has policy implications.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the economic consequences of accounting conservatism in Middle Eastern and North Africa (MENA) economies. In particular, motivated by the lack of empirical tests concerning economic effects of conservatism in MENA countries, the paper examines the impact of conditional conservatism on firms' cost of equity capital and the effect of two mechanisms of conservatism: bad news recognition and good news recognition on cost of equity. The firm-year measure of conditional conservatism is calculated using Khan and Watts' (2009) model and the cost of equity capital is computed based on Estrada's (2000) approach. As predicted, we find evidence of a negative relation between conditional conservatism and cost of equity capital using a sample of companies pertaining to MENA emerging markets. We also find that the two mechanisms of conservatism reduce the cost of equity capital. The finding of this paper can be used by standard-setters to review their opinion about the beneficial effect of conservatism. This study presents the first attempt in MENA countries to provide empirical evidence on the effect of conditional conservatism on the cost of equity capital.

Mention Enron or BCCI and a lack of financial regulation springs to mind. Consumer confidence is at a low ebb as consumers feel unprotected. This comparative survey of European and US consumer protection schemes offers detailed information on how much protection investors really have in these troubled times.

The relationship between the informational environment and the cost of equity capital has received considerable interest in finance and accounting research as well as in financial reporting regulation. Recent papers have demonstrated that increased public disclosure may decrease firms' cost of capital, at least if the additional information pertains to systematic risk. The discussion has focused on the impact of information on the cost of capital subsequent to the release of the information (the ex-post cost of capital). We show that the reduction in the ex-post cost of capital is offset by an equal increase in the cost of capital for the period leading up to the release of the information (the preposterior cost of capital). Thus, within the class of models framing the recent discussion, there is no impact on the ex-ante cost of capital covering the full time span of the firm. The extent to which information is made publicly or privately available affects the timing of the resolution of uncertainty and when the information is reflected in equilibrium prices, but there is no impact on initial equilibrium prices.In efficient economies with only public information, there is no impact of the information system choice on the investors' ex-ante expected utilities either. In the partially revealing rational expectations equilibrium of an economy with private investor information, however, the rational investors may actually benefit from a higher ex-post cost of capital (at the expense of the liquidity traders).

We examine the relation between the cost of equity capital and seven attributes of earnings: quality, persistence, predictability, smoothness, value relevance, timeliness and conservatism. We refer to the first four attributes as accounting-based because measures of these constructs are typically based on accounting information only. We refer to the last three attributes as market-based because proxies for these constructs are typically based on relations between market data and accounting data. Our analysis of the cost of capital effects of these attributes is based on two distinct approaches to measuring the cost of capital: a cross-sectional approach which uses ex ante cost of capital estimates derived from analyst forecast data, and a time-series approach that uses realized returns and asset pricing regressions. Across both sets of tests, we find that firms with the most favorable values of each attribute, viewed individually, enjoy significantly lower costs of capital than firms with the least favorable values. The largest cost of capital effects are found for the accounting-based attributes; within this set, earnings quality has the strongest effects. Among the market-based attributes, value relevance dominates timeliness and conservatism. Considering all attributes together, the results show that investors consistently price earnings quality and earnings persistence, and to a lesser extent, value relevance.

Financial accounting theory has numerous practical applications and policy implications, for instance, international accounting standard setters are increasingly relying on theoretical accounting concepts in the creation of new standards; and corporate regulators are increasingly turning to various conceptual frameworks of accounting to guide regulation and the interpretation of accounting practices. The global financial crisis has also led to a new found appreciation of the social, economic and political importance of accounting concepts generally and corporate financial reporting in particular. For instance, the fundamentals of capital market theory (i.e. market efficiency) and measurement theory (i.e. fair value) have received widespread public and regulatory attention. This comprehensive, authoritative volume provides a prestige reference work which offers students, academics, regulators and practitioners a valuable resource containing the current scholarship and practice in the established field of financial accounting theory.