4.2 Measuring return-earnings association
To provide collaborating evidence on the market’s perception of the impact of
governance on financial reports, the return-earnings association is used as an
additional measure of earnings quality. To the extent that better governance systems
can effectively align managers’ interests with those of shareholders, and actively
monitor and control firm-management, the transparency and the reliability of a firm’s
financial reporting process, and consequently, the informativeness of earnings would
increase. Therefore, a positive relation between the governance quality and the
return-earnings association is expected.