The evidence reviewed in Section 6 is mixed as to whether and how the market uses the tax accounts to set prices.
Several important results are found. First, the market appears to price the deferred tax accounts and does so in a manner
that reflects the length of time until expected reversal. However, this inference is largely drawn from studies that use price
levels regressions. Ignoring those studies, the evidence is mixed about whether the market prices the deferred tax
accounts. Second, market prices are positively associated with size of the tax contingency. Third, taxable income,
estimated using tax information in the financial statements, provides information to the market incremental to the
information in book income. However, the relative contribution of estimated taxable income decreases to the extent that
firms engage in aggressive tax planning. Fourth, firms with large book-tax differences (low values of the TI/BI ratio) have
lower P/E ratios, presumably due to the association between the TI/BI ratio and future earnings growth. However, sample
limitations make it unclear whether this result is generalizable. Fifth, unexpected taxable income (estimated by grossing
up financial statement tax expense) and the ratio of taxable income to book income predict future returns, a finding that
Weber (2009) attributes to the failure of analysts to properly use the information in estimated taxable income.