금융위기를 전후한 회계정보 질적 속성의 추세적 변화

The financial crisis of 1997 in Korea is considered to form a watershed in Korean accounting history, in the sense that the national accounting system and the overall practice have advanced a step toward a paradigm grounded upon transparency. The large scale accounting system reforms undertaken by the Korean government and Korea Accounting Institute, in particular, subsequent to the crisis and still ongoing, are presumed to have played a major role behind the paradigm shift. This study aims to conduct a comprehensive test on the structural changes in the qualities of earnings components between the pre-crisis and the post-crisis periods, using seemingly unrelated regression techniques, which enables simultaneous estimations of several related quality equations. Generalized version of Ohlson(1999) model as suggested by Barth et al.(1999) is employed as a basic research tool, which is augmented to accommodate the tests of structural changes. Major findings of the analyses include the followings. First, accrual and operating cash flow components of earnings aid in forecasting future abnormal earnings incremental to abnormal earnings and equity book value. Accruals and cash flows provide explanatory power for equity market value incremental to equity book value and abnormal earnings. Second, forecast and valuation relevancies of accruals and cash flows have experienced structural changes after financial crisis, toward enhanced qualities relative to pre-crisis period. The forecast, valuation, and persistence coefficients all exhibit increased absolute values during the post-crisis period. Third, the above results are sustained across different configurations of the models. Presence of industry effects and the relevance of discretionary component of accrual are suggested in additional tests.