The difference in the persistent of the industry’s earnings and firm-specific earnings

Abstract

Management in line with achieving persistent earnings tries to remove periodical fluctuations of earnings and attempts to present an appropriate picture of the performance of the firm. While according to the economic theories, the effective factor in assessing the performance of the firms are major and rather persistence factors in industry.The present study investigates the difference in the persistency of earnings in industry, firms and their elements. The data under investigation include 238 firms between 1387 and 1394. The results indicate more persistent earnings in industry and its elements than the earnings in the firm. Also business shocks are effective factors in reducing the persistence of earnings and accruals industry is more stable than company-specific accruals. However, bad news cannot significantly affect the persistence of earnings.

Keywords

• operating cash flows
• accruals
• business shocks
• bad news