Timeliness and Conservatism of Taiwanese Earnings

Abstract

Abstract Taiwan is an economy with an efficient stock market where accounting and auditing standards generally follow the US. However, a culturally different climate is caused by the predominance of family-owned public companies. We find Taiwanese firms' earnings exhibit the conservatism and timeliness of Asian economies where US GAAP is not used. Further tests show that family-controlled firms (typical of the Asian business model) exhibit less conservatism in their application of GAAP. This suggests limitations in the harmonization of accounting standards in those economies that have strong family influence in publicly traded firms.