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.
The extent to which accounting differences are related to valuation differences is of
concern in the debate on international accounting standards and practices. The body of
research examining the value relevance of accounting includes North American (Bernard,
1994; Collins et al., 1997), European (Joos and Lang, 1994; King and Langli, 1998), and
now Asian countries. The evidence seems clear that strongly conservative (biased)
accounting is less value relevant. The evidence concerning violations of the CSR is less
clear. Conceptually, violations of CSR that cause book values to be closer to market
values, e.g., asset revaluation, increase the value relevance of book value. However, CSR
violations that move book value away from market value, e.g., immediate write-offs of
goodwill, will decrease the value relevance of book value. Evidence to date is broadly
consistent with these expectations. Less clear are the predicted and actual effects of CSR
violations on the value relevance of residual earnings.