Title: The impact of equity share class on the information content of earnings and cash flows: evidence from Mexico

Authors: Jose Miranda-Lopez; Isho Tama-Sweet

Addresses: Collins College of Business, The University of Tulsa, 800 S Tucker Drive, Tulsa, OK 74104, USA ' School of Business Administration, University of Montana, 32 Campus Drive, Missoula, MT 59812, USA

Abstract: We investigate the relative and incremental information content of earnings and cash flows in Mexico. Mexico provides a unique setting to test this relation because firms are allowed to issue different classes of equity shares which appeal to different investors. Share classes differentiate between investors based on nation of origin (domestic vs. foreign), voting rights and cash flow rights. We find that, for the market as a whole, both earnings and cash flows provide incremental information and earnings provide greater relative information. We also test these relations for each share class individually and find that cash flows provide the greatest amount of information when investors are at the greatest risk of expropriation.

Keywords: information content; share class; cash flows; earnings; leverage; firm size; growth; Mexico.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAAPE.2018.091058

International Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation, 2018 Vol.14 No.2/3, pp.105 - 127

Received: 18 Jul 2016
Accepted: 21 Jun 2017
Published online: 09 Apr 2018 *

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