The relationship between accruals, earnings, and cash flows: evidence from latin america

The relationships between earnings, accruals, and cash flows for selected Latin American countries (Mexico, Chile, and Argentina) are investigated in this study from 1990 to 2009. We find a negative relationship between accruals and cash flow across decile portfolios. More importantly, firms reporti...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Trejo-Pech, Carlos O., Noguera, Magdy, Samaniego-Alcántar, Ángel, Weldon, Richard N.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2012
País:México
Institución:Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente
Repositorio:Repositorio Institucional del ITESO
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:rei.iteso.mx:11117/1618
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11117/1618
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Finance
Earnings and Cash
Financial Accounting
Latin American Public Firms
Descripción
Sumario:The relationships between earnings, accruals, and cash flows for selected Latin American countries (Mexico, Chile, and Argentina) are investigated in this study from 1990 to 2009. We find a negative relationship between accruals and cash flow across decile portfolios. More importantly, firms reporting the highest level of accruals, have the worst level of cash flows, but not the worst level of earnings. This relationship is of economic importance given that investors are very oriented towards firms yielding high earnings and might fail to realize that earnings are not always accompanied by strong levels of cash flows. Results are disaggregated by years and countries, and compared to previous results for U.S. firms.