Accounting Comparability and Debt Cost

Abstract

This paper takes China's A-share listed companies in 2010-2017 as the research object to explore the impact of accounting comparability on debt costs. First, adopt De Franco’s model to measure companies’ accounting comparability. Then, establish the multivariate regression model of accounting comparability and debt cost to implement an empirical study on the relationship between them. Further, property rights and audit quality are taken into account as internal and external factors to examine whether these two factors have impacts on the relationship between accounting comparability and debt cost. The results show that: (1) Accounting comparability is significantly negatively correlated with debt cost; (2) Compared with state-owned enterprises, the negative correlation between accounting comparability and debt cost is more significant in non-state-owned enterprises; (3) Compared with enterprises of higher audit quality, the negative correlation between accounting comparability and debt cost is more significant in enterprises of lower audit quality. This shows that accounting comparability is useful in decision-making, but the property rights of state-owned enterprises weakens the impact of accounting comparability on debt costs, and audit quality is an alternative to accounting comparability for the impact on debt costs. The results of this paper provide some theoretical references for relevant departments to improve accounting standards and auditing regulations so that accounting comparability and audit quality can be improved, and accelerate the property rights reform of state-owned enterprises.