{"title":"Accrual duration","authors":"Ilia Dichev, Edward Owens","doi":"10.1007/s11142-024-09826-8","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>We define accrual duration as the length of time between an accrual and its associated cash flow. Accrual duration is inextricably linked to accrual discretion and accrual quality by the fundamentals of the accrual process—the recording of longer-duration accruals involves using longer-term estimates, which makes them relatively more discretionary and less reliable, ceteris paribus. We provide the theoretical development of this broad idea and demonstrate several empirical applications linking accrual duration to earnings persistence, Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Releases, asset write-offs, and the observed kink in the earnings distribution. A major advantage of the accrual duration approach is that it is quite general, which allows us to derive a powerful new model of total accruals discretion and quality as well as a novel measure of total accruals duration. Finally, we discuss how the accrual duration approach can illuminate numerous ongoing issues in accounting research.</p>","PeriodicalId":48120,"journal":{"name":"Review of Accounting Studies","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Review of Accounting Studies","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11142-024-09826-8","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BUSINESS, FINANCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
We define accrual duration as the length of time between an accrual and its associated cash flow. Accrual duration is inextricably linked to accrual discretion and accrual quality by the fundamentals of the accrual process—the recording of longer-duration accruals involves using longer-term estimates, which makes them relatively more discretionary and less reliable, ceteris paribus. We provide the theoretical development of this broad idea and demonstrate several empirical applications linking accrual duration to earnings persistence, Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Releases, asset write-offs, and the observed kink in the earnings distribution. A major advantage of the accrual duration approach is that it is quite general, which allows us to derive a powerful new model of total accruals discretion and quality as well as a novel measure of total accruals duration. Finally, we discuss how the accrual duration approach can illuminate numerous ongoing issues in accounting research.
期刊介绍：
Review of Accounting Studies provides an outlet for significant academic research in accounting including theoretical, empirical, and experimental work. The journal is committed to the principle that distinctive scholarship is rigorous. While the editors encourage all forms of research, it must contribute to the discipline of accounting. The Review of Accounting Studies is committed to prompt turnaround on the manuscripts it receives. For the majority of manuscripts the journal will make an accept-reject decision on the first round. Authors will be provided the opportunity to revise accepted manuscripts in response to reviewer and editor comments; however, discretion over such manuscripts resides principally with the authors. An editorial revise and resubmit decision is reserved for new submissions which are not acceptable in their current version, but for which the editor sees a clear path of changes which would make the manuscript publishable. Officially cited as: Rev Account Stud
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