過去研究顯示,企業資本支出有所變動時,股市會有顯著異常報酬。而根據Jensen (1986)提出的自由現金流量假說,當管理當局有過多的自由現金流量,可能會形成所謂的「過度投資」問題導致公司價值損失和企業股價下跌。此亦被稱為存在於股東和管理當局之間的代理問題。而以往文獻指出,較保守的會計作法(即穩健會計)能夠減緩代理問題,因此本文參考Kim, Pilotte and Yang (2012)的研究另外在迴歸式中加入會計穩健程度變數,來探討會計穩健程度是否會影響未預期資本支出對異常股價報酬的解釋力,亦即市場是否會受到企業穩健會計的影響而對資本支出變動的反應有所增減。實證結果顯示企業未預期資本支出與累計異常報酬有顯著負向關係,而穩健會計能顯著減緩未預期資本支出與累計異常報酬之間的負向關係。
Prior studies document that the average stock price response to unanticipated capital expenditures is negative due to agency problems. Since accounting conservatism can alleviate agency problems, we predict that accounting conservatism could mitigate the value destruction associated with unanticipated capital expenditures. The empirical results find that unanticipated capital expenditures are significantly negatively associated with cumulated abnormal returns and the accounting conservatism significantly reduces the negative relationship between unanticipated capital expenditures and cumulated abnormal returns. Our evidence supports that accounting conservatism serves as an external monitoring mechanism.