Value Relevance of Accounting Information: An Empirical Comparative Study on Egyptian and Saudi Listed Companies

The objective of this research is to study, investigate and compare the value relevance of accounting information; accounting earnings, book value of equity and operating cash flows, between the Egyptian and Saudi listed companies.The author hypothesized that there are significant differences between the value relevance of accounting information between the listed companies of both countries. The author developed three regression models to test the research hypotheses and collected 426 observations (firmyear) from the Egyptian stock market and 301 observations (firmyear) from the Saudi stock market for the period 20152017.Statistical results showed that accounting information are value relevant to investors, in general, in both countries. However, there are significant differences between the value relevance of accounting information in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Accounting information in Saudi Arabia is of higher value relevance than that in Egypt. Investors in Egypt pay higher attention to book value of equity when they value firms, and on the other side, investors in Saudi Arabia rely on accounting earnings in the first place for firm valuation purposes.This research is one of the few studies that compare value relevance of accounting information between two developing countries. The results of this research are important to regulators and standard setters, who set standards in order to provide investors with the information they demand and increase the transparency and disclosure levels, and to managers, who should know the information that investors require to evaluate their firms.