Impact of Accounting Conservatism on Differential Information Content of Cash Flows and Accruals

Abstract

The subject concerning relationship between conservatism and information content of accruals relative to operating cash flows has been focused by many researchers. Felltham & Ohlson (1995) showed that the information content of accruals will increase conservatism, whereas the information content of cash flows remains unaffected. We predict that the score of conservatism of the firm has effect on their information content of accruals and cash flows, and firms with a high degree of conservatism have greater information content of accruals. This study is trying to collect evidence on this issue. To test the hypotheses in this study, two statistics methods for cross-section and panel data analysis have been used with financial information of 92 firms in Tehran Stock Exchange during 1999-2007. The results show that accruals and differential information content of cash flows relative to accruals for the firms exhibiting a high degree of conservatism is greater than that of the firms showing a low degree of conservatism. Also, there is a positive correlation between the differential information content of cash flows relative to accruals and conservatism score of firms.

Keywords

• differential information content
• accruals
• operating cash flows
• conservatism