The first half-century of empirical capital markets research in accounting in pictures
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11142_2025_9887_ReferencePDF.pdf
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Author(s)
Kothari, S. P.
Schonberger, Bryce
Wasley, Charles
Xiao, Jason J.
Date Issued
June 7, 2025
Journal
Review of Accounting Studies
Publisher
Springer US
Citation
Kothari, S.P., Schonberger, B., Wasley, C. et al. The first half-century of empirical capital markets research in accounting in pictures. Rev Account Stud 30, 3111–3176 (2025).
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Seminal papers by Ball and Brown (1968) and Beaver (1968) spawned a vast literature on the role of accounting numbers in capital markets. This literature, often referred to as capital markets research in accounting (CMRA), is now more than a half-century old. In light of numerous changes to the economic and financial reporting environments over this time, we estimate CMRA’s major relations using a comprehensive sample period. We illustrate each relation using plots, allowing us to efficiently present CMRA’s first half-century consistent with the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” The aims of our study are to document the extent of time-series variation in CMRA’s major relations and to provide evidence on market-level determinants of that variation. In doing so, our study provides a natural starting point for future research designed to develop and test additional causal explanations for time-series variation in the properties of CMRA’s major relations.
MIT Department
Sloan School of Management
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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11142-025-09887-3
