A large body of empirical research in accounting investigates the causes and consequences of accruals quality, reaching numerous influential conclusions. Yet little work has been done to systematically evaluate the validity of the underlying measures of accruals quality. We evaluate these measures using three criteria: (i) Is the measure unaffected by the underlying economic determinants of accruals? (ii) Does the measure consistently reflect errors in accruals? and (iii) Does the measure facilitate tests with sufficient power to detect plausible variation in accrual errors? Using a combination of theoretical modeling and numerical simulations, we show that all measures fail at least one of these criteria. Our evaluation provides new interpretations of existing research and guides the choice of measures and the interpretation of results in future research.

中文翻译：

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在应计质量研究中构建有效性

大量的会计实证研究调查了应计质量的原因和后果，得出了许多有影响力的结论。然而，很少有工作来系统地评估应计质量的基本措施的有效性。我们使用三个标准评估这些措施： (i) 该措施是否不受应计项目的潜在经济决定因素的影响？(ii) 该措施是否始终反映应计项目的错误？(iii) 该措施是否有助于以足够的能力检测应计误差的合理变化的测试？结合理论建模和数值模拟，我们表明所有措施都至少不符合这些标准之一。