For example,earnings captures poorly changes in firm value for growth firms because changes in internally generated intangible assets and growth options are not recognized in earnings.
As a result,earnings of high growth firms
are not transparent and high growth firms will have low explanatory power in the returns-earnings relation.
However,
growth isknowntobeassociatedwithcostofcapitalregardlessofwhetherearningsofhighgrowthfirmslack
transparency. Asaresult,variationinourearningstransparencymeasureislikelycorrelatedwithintertemporalchanges
and cross-sectionaldifferencesinfirmfundamentalssuchasgrowth.Therefore,detectingarelationbetweenourearnings
transparency measureandcostofcapitalcouldbeattributabletoearningstransparencyorsuchfirmfundamentals.To
address thispossibility,ourtestsincludecontrolsforgrowthandotherfirmfundamentalsthatareknowntobeassociated
with costofcapital.