The Association between Accounting Conservatism and Investment Efficiency in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE)

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between accounting conservatism and investment efficiency, to inform managers, investors and professional accounting bodies about the good quality of accounting conservatism as a qualitative characteristic of accounting information. Conservatism is expected (1) to improve the monitoring process over managerial investment decisions, decreasing investment in settings where managers are likely to over-invest, and (2) to facilitate the access to external financing at lower cost, increasing investment in settings where managers are likely to under-invest. This study highlights the informational benefits of conservatism, which is predicted to reduce information asymmetries. We find that more conservative firms are less likely to over- and under-invest.