Zhimin (Jimmy) Yu

The paper focuses on the relationship between firms’ characteristics and cross-section returns. The author reviews and critically assesses the most recent contributions in the literature. After comparing the abnormal returns (Alpha) and t statistics of the original works with those of replication works, the author concludes that 94 characteristics are robust. The limitation of the paper is that measurement errors in the COMPUSTAT could affect the predictability of cross-section returns. The practical implication of the paper is that the author validates the practice of fundamental analysis. Investors could benefit from those discovered characteristics. The author validates the policy consequence and connects the theoretical frameworks with empirical results. The author evaluates the empirical methodology and proposes several methods to improve future research.

Accounting conservatism could affect the quantitative information on a financial statement. In this paper, the author focuses on qualitative information on financial statements. The author investigates the association between financial report readability and accounting conservatism and uses the FOG index to measure financial report readability. By using management discussion and analysis (MD&A) from 1996 to 2019, the author finds that financial report readability is positively associated with accounting conservatism. Additionally, the author separates the samples into high-compensation incentive and low-compensation incentive subsamples. The results show that the above association is stronger in the high-compensation incentive samples than in the low-compensation incentive samples. This result implies that accounting conservatism could mitigate managerial opportunism in the qualitative disclosure setting.