Discussion of Enforceable Accounting Rules and Income Measurement by Early 20th Century Railroads

摘要

Sivakumar and Waymire conduct a useful empirical study that adds to our existing knowledge of the properties of earnings measures in different regulatory regimes. The most important aspect of the study is that they provide evidence on broad issues regarding the usefulness of accounting regulation. They carefully study the institutional context and exploit this knowledge in designing their tests and supplemental analyses. They develop new measures, document several interesting results, and indicate many directions for future research. In summary, I believe this is an interesting and informative paper, and well worth reading more than once.