Does institutional ownership affect the relationship between accounting quality and cost of capital? A panel smooth transition regression approach

Abstract

We set out in this study to determine whether there are any discernible variations in the relationship between accounting quality and the cost of capital that may be attributable to the level of institutional ownership. Our analysis involves a flexible econometric approach, based upon a ‘panel smooth transition regression’ (PSTR) analysis, using data on 64 listed firms in Taiwan covering the period from 2000 to 2017. Our results provide clear evidence to suggest that the relationship between accounting quality and the cost of capital does indeed vary with changes in the level of institutional ownership, a finding which, having relaxed the assumption that the interpretations of accounting information amongst investors are homogeneous, goes beyond the general finding within the extant literature of a linear relationship between accounting quality and the cost of capital.