In this study, we examined various aspects of discretionary accruals. We compared the power of Jones Model (JM), Modified Jones Model (MJM) and Performance Matched Model (PMM). Furthermore, we tested whether accruals derived from cash flow approach or balance sheet approach provide better results and we investigated the significance of country and industry control variables in models. In order to perform these tests, we constructed thirty equations. The data consists of 319 non-financial companies over five years in the GCC region. We used panel data regression models, and testing suggests us to use random effect model as the most suitable one. The results show that PMM has the highest explanatory power among models and it is followed by JM and MJM, consecutively. Secondly, results reveal that accruals derived from cash flow approach provide more accurate results. Moreover, country dummies are significant in models with cash flow approach and they lose significance in balance sheet approach. We differentiated industries due to two different classifications: the first group with higher number of industries is more precise compared to the second group with a narrower scope and lower number of industries. The model including both industrial and country-wise dummies scores highest in significance.

Purpose: This study reexamines the test on the pricing of accruals quality. Theory suggests that information risk is a priced risk factor. Using accruals quality as the proxy for information risk, researchers have tested the pricing of information risk. The results are inconsistent potentially because of the information shock in the realized returns that are used as the proxy for expected returns. Based on this argument, this study revisits this issue excluding information-shock-free measure of expected returns. Research design, data and methodology: This study estimates expected returns using the vector autoregression model. This method extracts information shocks more thoroughly than the methods in prior studies; therefore, the concern regarding information shock is minimized. As risk premiums are larger in recession periods than in expansion periods, recession and expansion subsamples were used to confirm the robustness of the main findings. For the pricing test, this study uses twostage cross-sectional regression. Results: Empirical results find evidence that accruals quality is a priced risk factor. Furthermore, this study finds that the pricing of accruals quality is observed only in recession periods. Conclusions: This study supports the argument that accruals quality, as well as the pricing of information risk, is a priced risk factor.