Notice of Retraction: A comparative analysis on factors affecting earnings persistence

Earnings are a summary of operation results of enterprises over a specific period of time. Since it plays an indispensable role in stakeholders' decision-making process, the research of its quality has become one of the key topics concerned by accounting scholars. This article employs earnings persistence as a proxy for the quality of earnings, using empirical methods for a comparative analysis of earnings volatility, volatility of cash flow from operations, accruals and the extreme degree of earnings, which are usual factors that affect earnings persistence. Furthermore, this article sorts these factors according to their explanatory power, and finds earnings volatility ranked first.