Corporate citizenship and earnings attributes

This study examines the association between corporate citizenship and earnings attributes. We examine four accounting-based earnings attributes, including persistence, predictability, smoothness, and accrual quality. Our sample consists of 652 public companies used to select the 100 Best Corporate Citizens (BCC) published by Business Ethics Magazine in 2001 and 2002. We find that BCCs earnings are more predictable, more persistent, and smoother than non-BCC's. Consistent with prior research findings, our results also indicate that BCC report higher subsequent accounting returns than non-BCC in the three-year period following the publication of the 2001 and 2002 BCC lists. We attribute these findings to the effort of good corporate citizens to preserve their reputation and the public's trust. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.