A Study on the Consistency Trend of Sequential Disclosing Annual Earnings

• Main Authors: Ying-Yi, Chen, 陳英毅
• Other Authors: Yang, M. P. Ph. D
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2003
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/10493503629518632256

碩士 === 東吳大學 === 會計學系 === 91 === To meet the specific regulations, many Taiwan firms may sequentially disclose realized annual earnings three times: First is the unaudited earnings disclosed on each January. Second is released through the post-period voluntarily renewal of financial forecast. Finally, the audited earnings are reported before April 30. Actually, the three disclosures all describe the same thing — the annual earnings. However, there may exist differences among them. So, this study is to investigate the factors associated with the consistency trend of sequential disclosing annual earnings. Based on agency theory and related papers, this study choose five tested factors: firm size, leverage, ownership structure, audit quality and earning variation. Data from 1993 to 2001 are collected from the Taiwan Economic News Journal. The sample consists 67 year-firms. To clarify the effects of the amendment regulations, this study respectively tests on sample 1 (1993 to 2001), sample 2 (1997 to 2001) and sample 3 (1993 to 1996). Logistic regression is established to test the hypotheses. The empirical results can be summarized as follows: 1. The lower the debt ratio is, the more consistent the sequential disclosing annual earnings are. 2. The result of sample 2 shows that the lower the ownership structure is, the more consistent the sequential disclosing annual earnings are. However, the result of sample 3 is opposite. 3. The result of sample 2 shows the lower level the audit quality is, the more consistent the sequential disclosing annual earnings are. However, the result of sample 3 is opposite. 4. The greater the earning variation is, the more consistent the sequential disclosing annual earnings are.