本研究主要的目的在重新檢視盈餘(EARN)和營業現金流量(OCF)在權益評價上的相對重要性。在過去,學者大多使用股票報酬(Dechow 1994)或未來營業現金流量(Barth et al. 2001)作為預測的準則變數,而本研究所使用的是事後之權益真實價值(intrinsic value)作為預測之準則。事後之權益真實價值的決定為未來三年每年之現金股利折現值加上未來第三年期末的市價折現值,使用事後之權益真實價值作為衡量之準則比使用股票報酬有較佳的優勢,原因為前者不受股票市場釘住報導盈餘的影響 (Sloan 1996)。另外,使用事後之權益真實價值作為衡量之準則也比使用未來營業現金流量具優勢,原因為事後之權益真實價值較能反應投資者未來現金流量的金額大小、時間及不確定性(SFAC No.1, FASB 1978)。
本研究係以Subramanyam and Venkatachalam (2007) 之研究方法為架構，並以我國1993年~2002年之上市公司為樣本，共計107家公司，1,070筆公司/年度觀察值為研究對象,運用普通最小平方法之迴歸分析、迴歸係數檢定及Vuong’s Z-statistic檢定以檢測盈餘和營業現金流量在解釋事後之權益真實價值的相對能力。
本研究結果證明盈餘在解釋事後真實價值的能力上優於營業現金流量,這個證據支持FASB應計基礎的盈餘在提供關於使用者未來現金流量資訊方面優於現金流量的聲明(SFAC No.1,FASB 1978, para.44)以及我國財務會計準則公報第一號第45段: 盈餘通常作為經營績效之衡量指標或作為其他衡量（如投資報酬率或每股盈餘）之基礎。

The purpose of this research is mainly to reinspect the relative importance of earnings (EARN) and operating cash flows (OCF) in equity valuation. In the past, the researcher mostly use stock returns (Dechow 1994) or future operating cash flows (Barth et al.2001) as a dependent variable, but we use ex post intrinsic value of equity as the criterion for comparison. We determine ex post intrinsic value of equity by discounting future dividends over a three-year horizon and market price at the end of the horizon. The advantage of the ex post intrinsic value measure over stock returns is that it is not contaminated by the stock market’s fixation on reported earnings (Sloan 1996). Moreover, using ex post intrinsic value of equity as the criterion is superior than using operating cash flows, because the former better reflects the magnitude, timing , and uncertainty of investors’ future cash flows (SFAC No.1, FASB 1978).
The study takes Subramanyam and Venkatachalam(2007)’s research as a construction, and selects listed company as the sample for the period 1993-2002 , amounts to 1,070 firm-years observation representing 107 distinct firms. We use regression analysis of ordinary least squares method, the regression coefficient test , and Vuong’s Z-statistic to examine the relative explanatory power of earnings and operating cash flows for ex post intrinsic value of equity.
This findings prove that earnings surpasses operating cash flows in explaining ex post intrinsic value , the evidence supports FASB’s assertion that accrual based earnings is superior to cash flows in providing information about users’ future cash flows (SFAC No.1, FASB 1978, para.44) and the Taiwanese Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) NO.1 statement that earnings is usually as the operating performance index or as the foundation of others measurements (eg. investment return rate or earnings per share) .

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