收入和现金流量的定价和权责发生制的确认外文翻译

1、中文 3700 字外文翻译原文：The pricing of earnings and cash flows and an affirmation of accrual accountingThis paper examines a core idea in accounting, drummed into every beginning accounting student: accrual accounting, rather than cash accounting, is appropriate for business reporting. Accounting goes beyon

2、d a mere cash book, to report (accrual) earnings rather than cash flow as the measure of valued added. The paper investigates whether common shares are priced in the stock market according to accounting prescriptions on how earnings and cash flows affect shareholders equity.To develop an empirical s

3、pecification that incorporates the prescriptions, the paper first formally lays out how earnings and cash flows relate to shareholders equity in the accounting system. With a focus on the shareholder, it makes the standard distinction in both valuation theory and accounting between the business and

4、the equity claim on the business. Under accrual accounting, earnings from the business add to both the book value of assets and the book value of the equity claim on those assets.This, of course, is well appreciated. Less appreciated, however, are prescriptions about cash flow that are imbedded in a

5、ccrual accounting: net cash flow from a businesscommonly referred to as free cash flowhas no effect of the book value of the equity (we show) but reduces the book value of business assets, dollar- for- dollar. Accrual accounting treats cash flow not as an addition to business value but as a payout f

6、rom the business. That payout reduces the value of business without affecting the cum-dividend value of the equity.The empirical analysis shows that the stock market prices business firms and equity claims on firms according to this prescription. We find that, on average, annual changes in both the

7、market value of the firm and the market value of equity shares arepositively related to annual earnings. However, given earnings, changes in the market value of the firm are negatively related to cash flows from the firm. Indeed, a dollar of free cash flow is, on average, associated with approximate

8、ly a dollar less in market value of the firm, while changes in the market value of equity are unrelated to the free cash flow that business generates. Furthermore, separating out the investment portion of flow free cash flow, we find that the remaining ?cashflow from operations is alsoassociated wit

9、h lower market value for the firm, dollar-for-dollar, and is unrelated to changes in equity value.The result with respect to earnings is, of course, not new; the finding of a positive correlation between earnings changes and stock returns in the Ball and Brown (1968) paper is an affirmation of accru

10、al accounting, replicated many times. Dechow (1994) and Dechow et al. (1998), among others, affirm the importance of accruals over cash flows under a variety of conditions. Our analysis explores an additional feature of accounting: not only does accrual accounting promote earnings as the primary val

11、uation attribute (rather than cash flows), but actually treats cash flows as irrelevant to equity valuation. Our empirical analysis affirms.The result with respect to cash flows may be surprising, for one typically thinks of cash flow as a ?good morecash flow means higher value and analysts often re

12、commend stocks of companies that have positive cash flow. However, our results are not surprising when one recognizes that economic theory also affirms the accounting: accrual accounting operates in a way that recognizes Miller and Modigliani (1961) notion of dividend displacement and the complement

13、ary notion of dividend irrelevance. Just as dividends, the distribution of cash to shareholders, reduce the equity claim but do not affect the cum-dividend value of equity, free cash flow, the corresponding distribution from the firm (to all claimants), is a dividend from the firm that reduces the v

14、alue of the firm but does not affect the cum-dividend value of the firm. Because the equity claim is on both the value of the firm and the cash flow, it is unaffected by the cash flow but rather by the cum-dividend value of the firm. In short, accrual accounting honors the foundational principles of

15、 modern finance, and the stock market prices firms and equity claims according to theseprinciples.The results in the paper seemingly conflict with previous research. In Rayburn (1986), Wilson (1987), Dechow (1994), Bowen et al. (1987), Clubb (1995), and Francis et al. (2003), among others, cash flow

16、 variables in return regressions load with a positive coefficient, with and without earnings included. The difference revolves around the issue of specification. This paper develops a regression specification quite methodically (in Sect. 1) so the differences are well understood. Indeed, while the p

17、ricing of earnings and cash flows is our substantive concern, the issue of specification in capital market research is a subtext. In this respect, the paper responds to the Holthausen and Watts (2001) criticism that capital markets research in accounting has had little to contribute to normative iss

18、ues faced by standard setters. With attention to specification which Holthausen and Watts argue is necessary we are able to draw conclusions about a very basic normative issue, the use of cash accounting versus accrual accounting for business reporting. Our result in no way nullifies the results in

19、other papers; indeed, we are able to reconcile what look like very different findings to the earlier results.The ability of earnings to explain changes in market values depends, of course, on how the earnings are measured. Indeed, one expects cash flow to be informative if earnings are poorly measur

20、ed, and the comparison of cash flow to earnings is a standard diagnostic in earnings quality analysis (see, for example, Sloan 1996; Dechow and Dichev 2002; Dechow et al. 2008). We build specifications that explicitly recognize that cash flows (and dividends) can have information content in response

21、 to poor earnings measurement. Nevertheless, using US GAAP earnings measures, we find that cash flows, on average, do not explain changes in stock prices. The emphasis that the findings apply on average is important, for GAAP is (presumably) designed for broad application in the cross-section. The a

22、verage result in no way abrogates the findings that accrual accounting may be deficient and cash flows relevant in particular contexts.1 Specification of return regressions involving earnings and cash flowsWhile documenting the relevant correlations, most prior research that relates stock prices and

23、 returns to earnings, cash flows, or both does not use pre-specified models. Some exceptions are Jennings (1990), who addressessome specification issues in earnings and cash flows regressions, and Barth et al. (1999), who refer to valuation models to develop regression equations involving earnings a

24、nd cash flows. In this paper we develop a specification and then put it to the test. The specification is dictated by the accounting structure that produces earnings and cash flows numbers. We first lay out this structure (in Sect. 1.1), then specify pricing equations that incorporate the structure

25、(in Sect. 1.2), which we then take to the data (in Sect. 2). A general discussion of specification of returns regressions containing accounting numbers is in the ?Appendix .1.1 Accounting relations that govern accrual accountingAccrual accounting, at least nominally, tracks the evolution of sharehol

26、ders equity over discrete periods; in each period, accounting calculates a number, earnings, which update shareholders equity via the cnlotrsyi.nWg e lay out a set of accountingoperations that amount to prescriptions that govern the accounting. We start with cash flows.1.1.1 Cash flow relationsThe f

27、irm (the business operations) is distinguished from the claims on the firm, as in the typical balance sheet. Correspondingly, cash flows generated by a business (free cash flow) are distinguished from those paid to claimants. The standard cash conservation equation equates the two:Free Cash Flow = d

28、 +F (1)As the analysis focuses on the pricing of common shares, the dividend to common shareholders, d, is distinguished from payments to all other claimants (such as bondholders and preferred stock holders), F. Distributions to debt issuersby the purchase of financial assets with the cashare also a

29、n application of free cash flow, so F refers to cash payments to net debt holders (debt holders and debt issuers). Dividends, d, are net cash distributions to shareholders (dividends plus stock repurchases less stock issues).It is common to distinguish the two components of free cash flow, cash from

30、 operations (C) and cash investment (I): Free Cash Flow = C - I. The distinction between C and I is an accrual accounting issue, however, involving an allocation to periodic income statements that does not bear on net cash generated. To delineate clearly between cash and accrual accounting, our refe

31、rence will be to the net cash from operations, that is, free cash flow. However, at the end of the paper we will distinguish between C and I to examine the pricing of cash from operations (C) with which previous papers have largely been concerned. So we will denote free cash flow as C - I with the r

32、eminder that this refers to the net cash flow from operations.1.1.2 Accrual accounting for the firmAccrual accounting adjusts free cash flows from operations on the left hand side of Eq. 1 to yield income from operations, as follows:01= (C-I) + I + Operating accruals 2)(The adjustments are added to

33、net operating assets on the balance sheet: NOA= I + Operating accruals ) (3)While Eq. 3 distinguishes between cash investment (like purchases of equipment) and operating accrual components of DNOA (like receivables and payables), cash investment is really an accrual that allocates current cash flows

34、 to income in future periods. Accordingly, DNOA is total accruals, comprised of current cash flows booked to the balance sheet as investments plus other non-cash flows also recorded to the balance sheet.1.1.3 Accrual accounting for shareholders equityAs well as tracking net operating assets, accrual

35、 accounting tracks net financial obligations (NFO) to net debtholders such that the balance sheet reports the common shareholders equity (B, for book value) as the residual claim on the net operating assets:B = NOA - NFO ). (4)Thus the updating of the shareholders equity obeys the relation,B = NOA -

36、 NFO ).(5)The change in NOA can be stated in terms of accrual and cash flow components. As I + operating accruals = OI - (C - I), by Eq. 2, the change in net operating assets inEq. 3 can be restated as NOA = 01 -(C -I).(6)Similarly, the change in net financial obligations is the difference between t

37、he net financial expenses (NFE) recorded in the income statement under accrual accounting and cash flow to net debtholders, F: NFO = NFE - F. But F = (C - I) - d, by the cash conservation Eq. 1, so NFO = NFE -C T) + d.(7)By taking the difference between Eqs. 6 and 7, the change in shareholders eis a

38、ccounted for:B =OI -( C -I ) - NFE + ( C -I ) -d=0I - NFE -d.(8)=Earnings - dwhere earnings are comprehensive earnings. Equation 8 is, of course, the clean surplus equation for updating shareholders equity, forced by the balaEnqc.e5sheet and the accounting for net operating assets and net financial

39、obligations in Eqs. 6 and 7.1.1.4 The normative prescriptions and the economics of cash flowsAs fixed relations, the accounting relations in Eqs. 1-8 are normative prescriptions that direct how one accounts for equity value. In particular, Eqs. 6 and 7 embed presumptions about the relevance of earni

40、ngs and free cash flow for determining equity value. By Eq. 6, operating income increases net operating assets, but free cash flow reduces net operating assets;indeed free cash flow reduces net operating assets dollar for dollar. By Eq. 7, free cash flow also reduces net financial obligations; free

41、cash flow, net of dividends, reduces net indebtedness dollar for dollar. But, as shown in Eq. 8, free cash flow drops out of the calculation of shareholders equity: accrual accounting treats free cash flow as if it is irrelevant to the value of equity.These prescriptions are at the heart of accrual

42、accounting; they articulate the exception that accrual accounting takes to cash accounting. They are, therefore, worthy of validation against the actual equity pricing in the stock market, and ourempirical analysis does so. Specifically, it asks whether, given operating income, the stock market pric

43、es free cash flow as a one-to-one reduction of the value of the firm, as in Eq. 6 and, given earnings, the market prices free cash flow as having no effect on the value of shareholders equity, as in Eq. 8.Source: Stephen H. Penman. Nir Yehuda,2009 卡he pricing of earnings and cash flows and an affirm

44、ati on of accrual acco unting .Spri nger Scibn ce,13 August, pp.453-458.译文：收入和现金流量的定价和权责发生制的确认本文探讨了会计的核心理念， 告诉每个会计初学者： 权责发生制会计比现金 会计，在制定企业报告时更为适当。 会计不只是单纯的通过现金账簿来报告 （增 值）收入，还要把现金流量作为价值增加的计量方法。 本文调查研究普通股在股 票市场上的定价是否会根据会计预计收入和现金流量来影响股东权益。要制定一个包含计划的规范的实证， 第一次正式的文件规定了如何盈利和现 金流量怎么与在会计系统的股东权益相关联。 随着对股东的焦点

45、转移， 它产生了 在两个估价理论与企业之间和企业权益的会计之间的标准区别。根据权责发生 制，企业收入使资产的账面价值以及这些资产的股权债权的账面价值都得到了增 加。这当然是十分值得赞赏的。然而，被赞赏较少的，是在权责发生制下被嵌入 关于现金流量的计划：企业的净现金流量，就是我们通常所说的自由现金流量， 并不对股权 （我们展示出来的） 账面价值产生影响， 但降低了企业资产的账面价 值。以“一美元换一美元”的等额方式补偿不再收回的偿还债务。权责发生制的 处理不可作为增值业务， 但可作为一个从业务支出的现金流量。 那项支出减少的 商业价值，无需影响产权的附带股息价值。实证分析表明，股票的市场价格和商

46、业公司根据本公司股权计划进行索赔。 我们发现， 平均而言，无论是在公司的市场价值和市场价值年股权变动都被计入 呈正相关的年度收益。 然而， 考虑到赢利能力， 该公司市场价值的变化与从公司 的现金流量比较，呈负相关。事实上，就平均而言，美元的自由现金流量是与大 约一美元以下的上市公司价值，而股票市值变动与经营活动产生现金流量不相 关。此外，分离出来的流动的自由现金流量的投资部分，我们发现，其余的“经 营业务产生的现金流量” 与降低公司市场价值相联系， “一美元换一美元”，并 与权益价值的变化无关。相对于盈利的结果，当然，不是新产生的；一个在收益的变化、鲍尔股票报 酬和布朗（ 1968）研究报告之

47、间的正相关的关系调查，是权责发生制的确认，并 且重复多次。德周（ 1994年）和德周（ 1998 年）等等，确认各种条件下的应计 项目对现金流量的重要性。 我们的分析， 探讨了会计附加功能： 不仅促进权责发 生制属性作为主要估值收益（而不是现金流量） ，但实际上是把现金流量作为无 关的股权估值来看待。我们的实证分析证实了这一观点。相对于现金流量的结论可能会令人吃惊， 一个典型的被认为是 “良好的” 现 金流更多的现金流意味着更高的价值， 并且分析师经常推荐的公司的股票都 是有正现金流量的。 然而，我们的结果并不令人惊讶， 当人认识到经济理论也肯 定了会计：权责发生制会计确认的方式，并且承认了米

48、勒和马德奇洛尼（ 1961 年）的概念位移和股息红利无关的互补性概念。股息、现金的发行对股东而言， 减少了产权，但不影响股息的价值。现金流量，从该公司相应的分配（包括所有 股东），影响了减少企业价值的企业的股息， 但是它不影响企业的附带股息价值。 由于双方的权益要求基于该公司的企业价值和现金流量， 它是未受影响的由现金 流量，但是相反地由企业的附带股息价值体现。 总之，权责发生制服从于现代金 融的基本原则，并且公司股票的市场价格以及债权和股权也是根据这些原则制定 的。论文中的结论似乎与先前的研究相冲突。 在雷伯恩（1986 年），威尔逊（1987 年），德周（ 1994年），博文（ 1987年

49、），克拉布（ 1995年）和弗朗西斯（ 2003 年）等人的文献中，作为回归的回报的现金流量变量伴随一个积极系数，有、无 收入都包括在内。 有所不同的是围绕着规范的问题。 本文建立一个有条理的回归 说明（在第二节第 1 小标题），这样，差异就容易被理解了。事实上，尽管收入 和现金流量的价格是我们的实质性关注的， 但是在资本市场中规范问题的研究是 潜在的。在这方面， 本文根据霍尔索森和瓦特 （2001） 批评的，关于资本市场的 会计研究已经对标准制定者所面临的规范问题没有什么贡献了。 其中霍尔索森和 瓦特认为有必要的是同时注意规范， 我们对现金会计与权责发生制会计的业务报 告使用问题， 可以得出

50、一个基本的规范性的结论。 结果，我们没有办法完全反对 其他文件的结论。 事实上， 以先前的结论看， 我们可以调和一下看起来完全不同 的结论。以盈利能力来解释市场价值的变化取决于如何计量收入。 事实上，如果收益 不容易测量， 预测的现金流量所提供的信息， 与现金流的收益相比， 是一个盈利 质量分析的判断标准。（比如：1996年的斯隆; 德周和 2002年多的德查夫； 2008 年中其他的人等）。我们建立了详细的计划书，来明确地认识到现金流量（和股 息）可以对测量不良收益的信息做出反应。 不过， 根据美国一般公认会计原则对 收益进行测量，我们发现，就平均而言，现金流量并不能解释股票价格的变化。 需

51、要强调的是调查结果的平均适用非常重要，因为会计准则是为（大概）大众普 遍方面的广泛应用而设计的。无法抛开的平均调查结果是权责发生制会计可能处 理不足，以及与在特定情况下的现金流量有关。1说明收益和现金流量的回归方程当证明相关关系时，多数早先的研究把股票价格与收益、现金流量联系起来， 或二者都不使用预先指定的模型。有些例外的是詹宁斯（1990年），他解决了盈 利和现金流量回归的一些规范的问题。还有巴特等人（1999年），他们提出估值 模型来建立盈利和现金流量的回归方程。 在本文中，我们建立一个假设，然后测 试它。该规范是出于产生收入和现金流量的数据的核算结构。我们首先制定出这 一结构（1.1节），然后指定定价方程，根据采取的数据（2节）整合结构（1.2 节）。含有的会计数据的回报回归规范的一般性讨论是在“附录”中。1.1会计权责发生制会计关系的支配权责发生制会计，至少在名义上，跟踪股东权益超过分立周期的演变； 在每 个时期，会计计算一个数字、收入、更