to a basket of currencies heavily weighted to the United States (US) dollar, wtth the baht's value stable at approximate!} 25: I rclattve to lhe US dollar. The 801's onicial announcement on July 2. 1997 to float the baht tnggercd an Hnmediate 20% drop in the value of the baht. A downward spintl fol lmlcd. By January 1998 the baht had fallen to approximately 57: I relative to the US dollar. After expanding at a healthy 5.5% in real terms in 1996, the That economy contracted by 0.4% in 1997 and 8.5% in 1998. B) year end 1997, the index of the Securities Exchange of Thailand (SET) had fallen b)' 55% closing at 373 compared to a January opening of 803.
We address two primary questions in this study. First, what is the
relation between accounting values (book. values and earnings) and stock prices in Thailand? We examine the association for book value and earn ings separately and together. The examination period runs from 1992 to
1998 overlapping the 1997 crash. so we can analyze both the levels and the changes tn the relation. Second, we address incremental value relevance of book value and of earnings Incremental value rele ance is defined as the explanatory power of hook. value (earning-;) over and above that ot cam mgs (book. value). Detectmg and explaining changes m the incremental explanatory power of book value and of earnings is the primary focus of our study.
We find that That book. values and earnings have value relevance. but
the relation between market prices and accounting numbers changes over our sample pet iod. In particular, the value relevance of book. values alone and of earnmgs alone each declined. The decline in the value relevance of earnings is particularly pronounced after the devaluation of lhe baht m July 1997. In addition. the mcremental value relevance of book values (i.e.. the value relevance of book value over and above that of earnings) increased after July 1997.
To te..,t for ditlcrences 111 value relevance related to the devaluation of the baht we limit our sample to the four quarters before (the before (>!riod) and the four quarters after (the after period) the July 2. 1997 devaluation of the baht. Our results indicate that the value relevance of account1ng information decltned stgnificantly from the before to the after penod. Despite the decltne in total value relevance tn the after (>!riod, the incrc ment,tl value relevance of book. value tncreased and the incremental value relevance or earnmgs decreased.
For many Thai tirms, the devaluation triggered the accounting recog
mtlon of foreign exchange losses related to lhe firms' foreign currency denominated debt • Many Thai firms had borrowed heavil) with debt denominated in US dollars or Japanese yen. Those 1trn1s howed higher