Using data from 19 countries over the 1990–2015 period, we examine how economic policy uncertainty (EPU) affects accounting quality. We find that accounting quality, measured based on Nikolaev’s (2018) model, increases during periods of high policy uncertainty. This relation is confirmed by the negative association between EPU and performance-adjusted discretionary accruals in a multivariate setting, and it extends to various alternative measures of earnings properties. We also find that the positive relation between EPU and accounting quality is more pronounced for government-dependent firms and firms with higher political risk. Additional analyses based on institutional investors’ trading behavior, media freedom, and press circulation suggest that market participants’ attention is a mechanism through which EPU affects accounting quality. Further, we find evidence that high accounting quality can mitigate the negative effects of EPU on corporate investment and valuation.

中文翻译：

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政策不确定性和会计质量

使用1990-2015年期间19个国家/地区的数据，我们研究了经济政策不确定性（EPU）如何影响会计质量。我们发现，基于尼古拉耶夫（2018）模型衡量的会计质量在政策高度不确定的时期内会提高。在多变量环境中，EPU与业绩调整后的应计所得之间的负相关关系证实了这种关系，并且这种关系扩展到了各种不同的收益属性度量。我们还发现，对于依赖政府的公司和具有较高政治风险的公司，EPU与会计质量之间的正向关系更为明显。根据机构投资者的交易行为，媒体自由和媒体发行情况进行的其他分析表明，市场参与者的关注是EPU通过其影响会计质量的一种机制。进一步，