The 2007-2008 financial crisis and accrual anomaly

Abstract

This paper investigates how the 2008 financial crisis affects the accrual anomaly documented by Sloan (1996). I find that the accrual anomaly increases during the financial crisis period and the increase in accrual anomaly does not differ between firms relying and not relying on external financing. Additional analysis shows that arbitrage risk and transaction costs could have contributed to the increase in accrual anomaly during the financial crisis period.