An Empirical Study For Differences In The Information Content Of Interim Earnings Announcements, Comparing The New And Old CAS

To some extent, the capital market responses to information disclosure assist in revealing the efficiency of capital market. In an efficient market, the arrivals of new accounting information have significant influence on the stocks' price and trading volume. As an important part of an efficient market, a financial accounting information system based on well-designed accounting standards will alleviate inefficiency of information market, and play a key role in the process of information transmission to security market.In order to enhance efficiency of security market, the new CAS was announced in China on the 15th of February 2006, and enforced on 1st of January 2007. It tries to improve the information system on two aspects: Introduce the fair value measurement method to improve relevance of accounting information; and reduce discretionary behavior to elevate comparability and consistency of accounting information. Nevertheless, all of these performances are still unverified.Using the generally-accepted method of volume test and price test, this dissertation examines the disclosure effect of interim financial reports, especially accounting earnings in China security market, comparing the new and old CAS, and concludes that:(1) Although the trading volume has a significant response to the arrival of interim financial reports, there is no evident correlation between abnormal trading volume and unexpected earnings, whether under the old or the new CAS.(2) Comparing to the new CAS, the correlation between variation and unexpected earnings under the old CAS is more significant, which implicates that there are some problems in the process of the information transmission under the new CAS, leaving room for the future improvement of its content and enforcement.