ABSTRACTT:h is papere xaminest he marketp ricingo f Jones (1991)m odelestimateda
bnormala ccruals (often termed "discretionarayc cruals"i n the
priorl iteraturet)o test whethers tock prices rationallyr eflectt he one-yearahead
earningsi mplicationos f these accruals.U singt he Mishkin(1 983)a nd
hedge-portfoliote st methods Sloan (1996)e mploys, I find that the market
overestimatetsh e persistence,o r one-year-aheadea rningsi mplicationso,f abnormala
ccruals,a nd consequentlyo verpricest hese accruals.T hese results
extendS ubramanyam(1 996)b y demonstratintgh att he marketn oto nlyp rices,
but also overpricesa bnormaal ccruals.T heya lso suggest thatt he overpricing
of total accrualst hat Sloan (1996)d ocumentsi s due largelyt o abnormaal ccruals.
T he resultsa re robustt o five alternativme easureso f abnormaal ccruals,
and stillh oldw hen I estimatea bnormaal ccrualsa fterc ontrollinfgo rm ajor
unusualb ut largelyn ondiscretionarayc cruals.T he latterf indingi s consistent
witht he notiont hat the marketo verpricest he portiono f abnormaal ccruals
stemmingf romm anageriadl iscretio