Informational and cushioning properties of conservative balance sheets: a study of crises resilience

Abstract This study examines the informational and cushioning properties of balance sheet conservatism (BSC) and their role in mitigating the adverse effects of financial crises. I document that, due to informational property, high-BSC firms raise more debt and have a lower cost of debt financing during the crisis. The cushioning property of BSC is associated with lower earnings volatility, likelihood of significant asset write-downs and probability of covenant violations. These properties contribute to superior performance, including smaller declines in stock prices, investment, employment, and productivity. An out-of-sample test using the setting of the Great Depression (1929–1933) confirms the aforementioned findings. Overall, a path analysis suggests that BSC effects operate mostly through cushioning (informational) property contributing 39% (11%) to overall firms’ performance during the crisis.