3.2.6 Financial reporting quality
Wittenberg-Moerman (2008) finds that timely loss recognition reduces information
asymmetry in the secondary loan market. In other words, timely loss recognition increases
debt contracting efficiency and reduces the agency cost through underestimating the net
asset value and hence facilitates the monitoring process by debt holders. The market
response to ICDs is also dependent on audit quality (Gupta and Nayar 2006; Beneish et al.
2008). Therefore, we use the absolute value of discretionary accruals as a measure of the
firm’s financial reporting quality.
3.2.7 Determinants of the bid-ask spread
Determinants of the bid-ask spread are liquidity (amount or volume of stock traded), and
volatility or market risk. Liquidity is argued to be negatively associated with information
asymmetry and the cost of capital (Diamond and Verrecchia 1991; Botosan 1997; Healy
et al. 1999; Leuz and Verrecchia 2000; Botosan and Plumlee 2002). Therefore, we include
the volume of traded stock as a proxy for liquidity in our regression model.