Our results indicate first, that accounting book value and residual earnings are positively and significantly related to current stock prices across all six countries consistent with King and Langli's (1998) findings for European countries and Bernard's (1994) results for US firms. Our results also show significant differences in the relation between accounting numbers and stock prices across the six countries and across time. We find some consistency between our predictions of explanatory power of accounting for firm value based on accounting practice in the six countries; however, the predictions are incomplete and some results are not consistent. While this study suggests that differences in the explanatory power of accounting are related to accounting differences across the countries, more evidence is needed. Second, when we focus on the relative and
incremental explanatory power of book value and residual earnings, the empirical results
again vary across countries more than for European and American markets in prior studies.
Again, there are some tantalizing hints that accounting practice is related to these
differences, but more evidence is needed.