The Role of Accounting Conservatism in Mitigating BondholderShareholder Conflicts over Dividend Policy and in Reducing Debt Costs Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Using both a market-based and an accrual-based measure of conservatism, we find that firms facing more severe conflicts over dividend policy tend to use more conservative accounting. Furthermore, we document that accounting conservatism is associated with a lower cost of debt after controlling for other determinants of firms' debt costs. Our collective evidence is consistent with the notion that accounting conservatism plays an important role in mitigating bondholder-shareholder conflicts over dividend policy, and in reducing firms' debt costs.

published proceedings

  • The Accounting Review

altmetric score

  • 3

author list (cited authors)

  • Ahmed, A. S., Billings, B. K., Morton, R. M., & StanfordHarris, M.

citation count

  • 623

complete list of authors

  • Ahmed, Anwer S||Billings, Bruce K||Morton, Richard M||Stanfordā€Harris, Mary

publication date

  • January 2002