Finally, we included the level of operating cash flows (CFO) deflated by lagged total assets as a performance measure. Dimitropoulos and Asteriou (2009) document that cash flows are equally value relevant with earnings in determining stock return movements within the Greek accounting setting. Consequently we expect a positive coefficient on the CFO variable during the pre and post-IFRS periods. Also Dechow Sloan, and Sweeney (1996) and Young(1999) declare that the matching principle results in a natural smoothing of accruals which in turn causes negative discretionary accruals to occur in periods of extreme positive cash flows. We included the absolute value of CFO so as to control for this potential misspecification. If the abovementioned assertion is true we expect a positive relation between DACC and CFO