As a practical matter, the DD approach is limited to current accruals. While
applying the DD model to total accruals would, in principle, produce an accruals
quality metric that comprehensively measures accruals uncertainty, the long lags
between non-current accruals and cash flow realizations effectively preclude this
extension. To address this limitation, we also consider proxies for accruals quality
that are based on the absolute value of abnormal accruals, where abnormal accruals
are estimated using the Jones (1991) model, as modified by Dechow et al. (1995).
Applying the modified Jones approach to our setting, accruals quality is related to
the extent to which accruals are well captured by fitted values obtained by regressing
total accruals on changes in revenues and PPE. Because abnormal accruals consider
both current and non-current accruals they do not suffer from the limitation of the
DD model. However, the modified Jones’ model’s identification of ‘abnormal’
accruals has been subject to much criticism (see, e.g., Guay et al., 1996; Bernard and
Skinner, 1996). Furthermore, the modified Jones model identifies accruals as
abnormal if they are not explained by a limited set of fundamentals (PPE and
changes in revenues), and while we believe that such abnormal accruals contain a
substantial amount of uncertainty, the link to information risk is less direct than in
the DD approach.