This paper documents changes in the patterns of earnings, cash flows and accruals over the last four decades that provide an indication of a trend in reporting conservatism. In the absence of a generally accepted definition of conservatism, a number of measures consistent with the general notion...

This paper assesses the quality of segment reporting using a measure based on the correlation between the performance of the segment and its industry. The findings show that the quality of segment information particularly earnings is lower than that of stand-alone firms. The difference is...