abstract
Researchers have used various measures as indications of ‘‘earnings quality’’ including
persistence, accruals, smoothness, timeliness, loss avoidance, investor responsiveness,
and external indicators such as restatements and SEC enforcement releases. For each
measure, we discuss causes of variation in the measure as well as consequences. We
reach no single conclusion on what earnings quality is because ‘‘quality’’ is contingent
on the decision context. We also point out that the ‘‘quality’’ of earnings is a function of
the firm’s fundamental performance. The contribution of a firm’s fundamental
performance to its earnings quality is suggested as one area for future work.