Fundamental Valuation in Seven Asian Countries: Role of Earnings, Book Value, and Dividends

We examine the role of earnings, book value, and dividends in examining the valuation of firms in select Asian countries. Besides the usual variables of earnings and book value, inclusion of dividends is motivated by prior use of the variable in the literature, as well as an adaptation of the Ohlson 2001 empirical specification of the valuation model. In our specification, absent credible analysts’ forecasts, as is typical in these markets, dividends together with earnings play the role of “other information” in explaining stock prices. In a large sample of Asian firms from seven Asian countries that lack an active analyst community, we document two key results. First, the model with earnings, book value, and dividends outperforms the earnings capitalization, book value, and a model with earnings and book value together, the traditional benchmarks used in the literature. This is in contrast to Ashbaugh and Olsson, 2002 who find that earnings capitalization is the best model for the international firms. Second, the ability of the model to explain stock valuations does not vary materially over time, thus indicating reasonable consistency across different accounting regimes in these countries that may include International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adaptation at different paces. Our finding highlights the information role of earnings and dividends when other channels of information are blocked.