Earnings Opacity and the Productivity of Nations

Abstract

Output per worker varies significantly from one country to another. Why? Our analysis shows that differences in earnings opacity are important sources of this variation. Earnings opacity is a measure that reflects how little information there is in a firm's earnings number about its true, but unobservable, economic performance. According to our results, a high‐productivity country has the accounting quality associated with low earnings opacity. Results further suggest that the quality of accounting in general, and low earnings opacity in particular helps a country by stimulating the accumulation of human and physical capital and by raising its total factor productivity.

Citation

Riahi‐Belkaoui, A. (2004), "Earnings Opacity and the Productivity of Nations", Review of Accounting and Finance, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 131-144. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb043410