We investigate the impact of the mixed attribute GAAP measurement model on accrual quality inferences. GAAP rules vary from an income statement 'matching' focus to a balance sheet 'fair-value' focus. Accrual properties are also affected by the business activity being measured and the activity's recurrence. Furthermore, accrual measurement is affected by managerial estimation error/manipulation. As a consequence, accruals are heterogeneous with predictably different statistical properties. We construct a dataset of more than 100,000 accrual items that Compustat aggregates into data item, FOPO. We classify these accruals into 32 types over a 21-year span. We show that variation in persistence for the 32 accrual types is consistent with our predictions concerning GAAP rules. We provide a model of accruals and show that it is implausible for estimation error of reasonable magnitudes to explain this variation. Finally, we develop a measure of reporting consistency and show its impact on accrual quality inferences.

中文翻译：

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应计异质性对应计质量推断的影响

我们研究了混合属性 GAAP 测量模型对应计质量推断的影响。GAAP 规则从关注损益表的“匹配”到关注资产负债表的“公允价值”不等。应计属性也受到被测量的业务活动和活动的重复性的影响。此外，权责发生制计量受到管理估计错误/操纵的影响。因此，应计项目是异质的，具有可预测的不同统计特性。我们构建了一个包含超过 100,000 个应计项目的数据集，Compustat 将这些项目聚合到数据项 FOPO 中。我们在 21 年的时间里将这些应计项目分为 32 种类型。我们表明，32 种应计类型的持久性变化与我们对 GAAP 规则的预测一致。我们提供了一个应计模型，并表明合理幅度的估计误差无法解释这种变化。最后，我们制定了报告一致性的衡量标准，并展示了它对应计质量推断的影响。