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This study examines the returns-earnings relationship taking into consideration the quality of earnings for a sample of industrial and service Jordanian companies listed on Amman Stock Exchange over the period (2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012). The study uses five simple and direct measures (indicators) of earnings quality that could be used by any financial statement user. Using Ordinary Least-Squares Regression (OLS), the results show that the returns-earnings relationship has improved after sorting data based on the quality of earnings. Moreover, after adding the age of companies as a control variable results have generally improved except for some indicators. At last, earnings quality sorting was used for industrial sector companies and service sector companies each separately. The results show that returns-earnings relationship is stronger for service sector companies than for industrial sector companies in general.

This study aims at examining whether the relationship between market stock return and earnings (losses) per share and book value per share varies according to each and both of the sign of net income and the stage the firm is going through within its life cycle. The study used a sample of 33 industrial public shareholding companies listed in Amman Stock Market (164 observations) during the period 2011-2019. To achieve the objectives of the study, the researchers executed a number of simple -and multiple- regression models of the returns-earnings (losses) and book value to examine the relationship from various dimensions: (1) the explanatory power of earnings (losses) per share, (2) the explanatory power of book value per share, (3) the incremental explanatory power of book value per share over that of earnings (losses) per share. The models were executed for various sub-samples constructed according to the sign of net income and the stage in which the company is going through within its life cycle, separately and combined. The results of the sub-samples which were constructed based on both the sing of net income and the stage which the company is going through revealed the following: (1) earnings per share and book value per share have no information content for profitable companies in the introduction and growth stages, (2) the main explanatory variable for market stock return for profitable companies in the maturity stage is earnings per share, (3) the only explanatory variable for market stock return for profitable companies in the shake-out and decline stages is earnings per share, (4) losses per share and book value per share separately have no information content for losing companies in the introduction and growth stages, (5) losses per share and book value per share have information content when both are entered together in the model, (6) only book value per share has information content for losing companies in the maturity stage, (7) loss per share and book value per share separately and together have no information content for losing companies in the shake-out and decline stages. The results suggest that the reasons behind the low explanatory power of the relationship between market stock return and earnings per share are the presence of losses, the failure to take into account the stage in which the company is going through in its life cycle and the failure to consider the book value per share in the model of the relationship, which leads to an error in the specification of the relationship, especially if the result of operations is a loss. These results are expected to assist stakeholders in making rational decisions and recommendations.

This study aims at examining the impact of accounting conservatism and voluntary disclosure on the cost of capital of industrial companies in Jordan during the period (2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013). Panel OLS regression analysis was employed to test the hypotheses of the study. The results of the full sample model revealed that accounting conservatism and voluntary disclosure have significant negative impacts on the firms' cost of capital.Furthermore, the results of the sub-samples which distinguish between large and small, as well as between high and low leverage firms showed that the sub-sample of large and small firms conforms to the full sample results. Across the sub-sample of high leverage firms, the results showed that only voluntary disclosure has a significant negative impact on the firm's cost of capital. On the other hand, only accounting conservatism has a significant negative impact on the firm's cost of capital across the sub-sample of low leverage firms.