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會計穩健性：基於亞洲國家資料研究之回顧
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We then summarize common empirical specifications of conservatism: Basu (1997),
Beaver and Ryan (2000), Givoly and Hayn (2000), Ball and Shivakumar (2005), Basu-multi-
period (Lin and Liu, 2014), and C-Score (Khan and Watts, 2009).
Prior literature investigates the effect of conservatism on attributes of earnings such as
earnings persistence or return on assets. Most studies find that conservatism does affect
earnings persistence (Chen et al., 2014). Lee and Hsieh (2015) further show that
conservatism affects earnings persistence in a nonlinear way.
3. Determinants and Consequences of Conservatism
Whether conservatism can improve efficiency depends on the information users and
decision scenario discussed. This section summarizes the determinants and consequences of
conservatism from three perspectives: the equity market, the debt market, and corporate
governance.
3.1 Equity Market Perspective
Brown et al. (2006) demonstrate that conservatism is positively related to value
relevance by using a cross-country sample. Furthermore, the relationship is more pronounced
when investor protection is stronger. Li (2015) finds that conservatism can reduce the cost of
equity capital. Barniv and Myring (2006) incorporate the effect of conservatism on earnings
into valuation models and show that the explanatory power improves. Chi and Wang (2010)
use C-Score as a proxy for conservatism and find that information asymmetry induces
demand for conservatism, which is similar to LaFond and Watts (2008). Lee and Liu (2014)
indicate that more conservative firms are more likely to finance through equity because
conservatism helps them reduce the information asymmetry between management and equity
investors.
Overall, most prior studies support that conservatism is beneficial for equity holders.
3.2 Debt Market Perspective
In Asian countries, public and private companies depend more on banks as a financing
source than US firms do. Some studies have utilized this feature to investigate the
association of lender type or debt type with borrower accounting conservatism.
Chen et al. (2010) find that the state ownership status of borrower or lender firms can
affect borrower conservatism for a sample of Chinese listed companies. Their empirical