Additionally, we controlled for the impact of firm leverage (LEV). Van Tendeloo and Vanstrelen (2005) and Billings (1999) document that the debt-equity hypothesis predicts that highly leveraged firms are more likely to engage in upwards earnings management to avoid debt covenant violations and are associated with lower earnings response coefficients. Therefore we expect that leverage (as measured by the ratio of total debt to common equity) will have a negative impact on the quality of accounting information. Moreover, we controlled for the effect of growth opportunities (GROWTH) measured as the percentage change in sales from year t-1 to year t. Kumar and Krishnan (2008) document that the value relevance of earnings and cash flows increase with investment opportunities. Therefore, firms with a positive annual change in sales are expected to have more value relevant accounting information and present greater timely loss recognition. Thus, the coefficient of the GROWTH variable is expected to have a positive sign.