Impacts of Conditional Conservatism on Labor Investment Efficiency

Timely detection of losses versus gains (known as conditional conservatism) may make investment decisions of management efficiently by reducing the information asymmetry between management and investors and providing early signals about the profitability of the accepted projects. This study examines the effects of conservatism on the most important neglected aspect of investment decision, namely investment in manpower. This is a descriptive, correlational and post-event study. The statistical population is all of the companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange, and the sample consists of 161 companies during 2009-2017, or totally 1449 company-years. Findings showed that there is significant and negative relationship between conditional conservatism and manpower investment efficiency. This implies that the conservatism reduced inefficient investment in the labor market by reducing asymmetric information. Based on the findings, conservatism, as the regulatory mechanism and the early signal about the profitability of decisions, reduces damaging practices of bad earning management, and speeds up the identification of bad news earlier than good news.