The Usefulness of Long-Term Accruals
Abacus, Vol. 37, No. 1, 2001
Posted: 5 Nov 2011
There are 2 versions of this paper
Date Written: 30 Nov., 2000
Abstract
Though empirical evidence strongly supports the role of short-term operating accruals in improving operating cash flows as a measure of performance, there is little support or consensus with respect to the effect of long-term accruals. We provide evidence that long-term accruals do reduce timing and matching problems in cash flows. In return-earnings regressions, long-term accruals are found to improve earnings as a measure of firm performance, although not to the same extent as short-term accruals. Further, our analysis highlights differences in economic and statistical properties between short-term and long-term accruals and demonstrates how these differences impede the ability of long-term accruals to improve earnings as a performance measure in a return-earnings context. The incremental explanatory power of long-term accruals is shown to be hampered by the lack of present-value considerations in the existing accounting model, timeliness problems, and measurement error in the indirect method of computing cash flows and accruals.
Keywords: Accrual accounting, Accruals, Cash flows, Corporate performance, Long term, Short term
JEL Classification: M40, M41
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation