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The Liquidation Option Hypothesis and the Role of Conditional Conservatism in Accounting Information Asymmetry

Ha, Seunghwa1 · Kim, Myeongjong2

1 Busan Development, 2 Pusan National University

Published: January 2018 · Vol. 47 No. 6 · pp. 1457-1483

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17287/kmr.2018.47.6.1457

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Abstract

As a representative hypothesis on the asymmetric informativeness of earnings, the liquidation option hypothesis and conditional conservatism have been supported by many previous literatures, but they have the different view for the reason of the asymmetry. The liquidation option hypothesis argues that the loss is less correlated with future earnings and future cash flows than profit. On the other hand, conditional conservatism argues that conservatism reduces the loss persistence because the bad news is timely reflected in the earnings and is revesed in next period. While conservatism increases profit persistence because the good news is gradually absorbed in earnings over the future periods. Therefore, conservatism results in the asymmetric persistence. Condition conservatism also makes that the bad news is immediately reflected in the earnings, while the good news is gradually reflected in earnings. Therefore, conservatism generates the asymmetric timeliness(an asymmetric value relevance). Many previous studies have shown that liquidation option hypothesis and conditional conservatism are mutually exclusive hypotheses, but there is no empirical evidence through the investigating the role of two hypothese in the perspective of earnings persistence and value relevance. This paper is to investigate the individual effect of the liquidation options hypothesis and conditional conservatism on the asymmetric persistence and value relevance between profit and loss, and the complementary effects of conditional conservatism and liquidation option on asymmetric informativeness of profit and loss. Main findings can be summarized as follows. First, conditional conservatism and curtailments are co-factors that are able to explain the asymmetry persistence. Conditional conservatism provides a positive incremental effect on the earnings persistence of profit firms, but curtailment does not provide a significant incremental effect. On the other hand, conditional conservatism and curtailment provide a significant negative incremental effect on earnings persistence of loss firms. Second, conditional conservatism and curtailments are also the factors for asymmetric value relevance. Conditional conservatism does not have a significant effect on value relevance for profit, but curtailment provides a negative effect. On the other hand, conditional conservatism has a significant negative impact on value relevance of loss firm, and curtailment has a significant positive effect on loss reporting firms. Finally, Curtailments and conditional conservatism are not mutually exclusive competitive factors, but are coexisted factors.
Keywords: 사업조정조건부 보수주의비대칭적 지속성비대칭적 가치관련성