Abstract This study examines the impact of accounting comparability on financial reporting quality and the extent to which financial statement users understand the implications of firms' accruals. We predict that comparability improves the information environment, which not only enhances the ability of managers to estimate accruals more accurately and signal their private information, but also improves investors' comprehension of accruals. Utilizing restatements, the mapping of accruals into cash flows, earnings persistence, and audit fees as measures of financial reporting quality, we find that prior-period comparability is associated with higher financial reporting quality. We also provide evidence that comparability is positively associated with managerial forecast accuracy and precision, consistent with comparability improving the ability of managers to predict future firm performance. Furthermore, we find that when prior-period comparability is higher, current period discretionary accruals are less positively correlated with contemporaneous returns and less negatively correlated with future returns, consistent with our prediction that comparability improves the pricing efficiency of accruals. Our results are robust to controlling for the endogeneity of accounting comparability and several different empirical model specifications. Overall, our findings suggest that enhanced accounting comparability is beneficial to both preparers and users of financial statements.

中文翻译：

---

会计可比性，财务报告质量和应计费用

摘要本研究探讨了会计可比性对财务报告质量的影响以及财务报表使用者理解公司应计项目的影响的程度。我们预测，可比性将改善信息环境，这不仅会增强管理者更准确地估计应计费用和向其私人信息发出信号的能力，而且还将提高投资者对应计费用的理解。利用重述，应计费用到现金流量，收入持续性和审计费用的映射作为财务报告质量的度量，我们发现上期的可比性与更高的财务报告质量相关。我们还提供证据表明，可比性与管理预测的准确性和精确性呈正相关，与可比性保持一致，从而提高了经理预测未来公司绩效的能力。此外，我们发现，当上期可比性较高时，当期任意应计制与同期收益的正相关性较小，而与未来收益的负相关性较小，这与我们对可比性提高了应计制定价效率的预测一致。我们的结果对于控制会计可比性的内生性和几种不同的经验模型规范具有鲁棒性。总体而言，我们的发现表明，增强的会计可比性对财务报表的编制者和使用者都有利。当期任意应计制与同期收益的正相关性较小，与未来收益的负相关性较小，这与我们对可比性提高了应计制定价效率的预测相符。我们的结果对于控制会计可比性的内生性和几种不同的经验模型规范具有鲁棒性。总体而言，我们的发现表明，增强的会计可比性对财务报表的编制者和使用者都有利。当期任意应计制与同期收益的正相关性较小，与未来收益的负相关性较小，这与我们对可比性提高了应计制定价效率的预测相符。我们的结果对于控制会计可比性的内生性和几种不同的经验模型规范具有鲁棒性。总体而言，我们的发现表明，增强的会计可比性对财务报表的编制者和使用者都有利。