Measurement of Accounting Information Consistency and Its Impact on Corporate Debt Financing

——the Empirical Evidence from China’s A-share Listed Companies FAN Shao-jun and CHEN Juan

Abstract：The accounting information consistency is an important feature of the quality of accounting information.Based on the data of China’s A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2015，the authors built a mathematical model to quantitatively measure the accounting information consistency of enterprise；using capital cost as an intermediary variable，and with the help of multiple linear regression models，the authors also examine the influence of accounting information consistency on corporate debt financing. The study shows that，after controlling other factors，accounting information consistency significantly increases the debt financing of enterprises.Specifically，from the transmission point of view，by using causal steps approach，the authors find that the higher consistency reduces the cost of debt capital，while the lower capital cost of debt improves the enterprise's debt financing，which indicates that the capital cost plays an intermediary role.Further，from the perspective of ownership nature，it is found that these influences are different in enterprises with different ownership nature，which embodies the moderating effect of ownership nature. The authors quantitatively measure the accounting information consistency earlier and prove that the consistency has positive economic results through empirical testing，which could provide a useful reference for investors' decision-making and reflect the usefulness of accounting information. The authors suggest that listed companies should improve accounting information consistency and the disclosure quality of accounting information，and make accounting information to play a role in governance mechanism，so as to improve financing capacity in capital market.

Key words：accounting information；consistency；measurement；debt financing