Earnings response coefficient in the MENA region

ABSTRACT

This article documents the earnings response coefficient (ERC) for nonfinancial firms listed in the Middle East and North Africa region during the period between 2003 and 2013. Our results show significantly positive ERC for our sample firms. The results are robust across different countries and different industries. Our results also show that ERC increases with increasing the measurement interval. It indicates that more information is incorporated in prices as the measurement interval increase. Consequently, we argue that significance of reported earnings is higher for long-term investors in the MENA region.

KEYWORDS:

• Earnings response coefficient
• stock returns
• reported earnings
• emerging markets

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• G15
• G34

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.