Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relation between financial statement comparability and corporate investment efficiency of a large sample of US firms.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use a large sample of US-listed firms from 1981 to 2013. The authors use several econometric methods including ordinary least square, firms fixed effects and mediation effects regression. Sensitivity tests that include the use of alternative measures of both the dependent and independent variables provide results that are consistent with the authors’ baseline model results.

Findings

The authors find that financial statement comparability mitigates risks associated with both under-investment and over-investment. They also find that product market competition mediates the relation between financial statement comparability and investment efficiency. The authors consider this to be a function of a competitive environment, whereby firms normally disclose less private information. This in turn reduces the effect of financial statement comparability on investment efficiency. Conversely, where there are higher levels of product market competition, it is less likely that firms will under-invest. Their results are consistent with these predictions.

Originality/value

The authors contribute to this growing field of research by providing evidence that financial statement comparability does in fact improve firms’ investment efficiency. Findings enhance our understanding of the relation between investment efficiency and financial statement comparability which is likely to have flow-on effects in terms of financial reporting quality and firm value. This study also contributes to research that links agency theory to financial statement comparability through an analysis of moral hazard and adverse selection tenets, and how it leads to reduced levels of investment inefficiency in a firm.

中文翻译：

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财务报表可比性和企业投资效率

目的

本文的目的是研究大量美国公司的财务报表可比性与公司投资效率之间的关系。

设计/方法/方法

作者使用了1981年至2013年间在美国上市的公司的大量样本。作者使用了几种计量经济学方法，包括普通最小二乘法，公司固定效应和中介效应回归。敏感性测试（包括使用因变量和自变量的替代度量）提供的结果与作者的基线模型结果一致。

发现

作者发现，财务报表的可比性降低了投资不足和投资过度所带来的风险。他们还发现，产品市场竞争会介导财务报表可比性与投资效率之间的关系。作者认为，这是竞争环境的作用，因此公司通常会披露较少的私人信息。反过来，这减少了财务报表可比性对投资效率的影响。相反，在产品市场竞争水平较高的情况下，企业投资不足的可能性较小。他们的结果与这些预测是一致的。

创意/价值

作者通过提供证据表明财务报表可比性确实提高了公司的投资效率，为这一不断发展的研究领域做出了贡献。研究结果加深了我们对投资效率与财务报表可比性之间关系的理解，这可能会对财务报告质量和公司价值产生持续影响。这项研究还有助于通过将道德风险和逆向选择原则进行分析，将代理理论与财务报表可比性联系起来的研究，以及如何降低公司投资效率的降低。