This study reexamines competition, cost structure, and growth opportun
ities effects on earnings response coefficients and extends this liter
ature in several ways. First, it presents a more refined theoretical m
otivation for investigating competition and cost structure effects. Se
cond, it introduces new economic factor proxies that confirm prior fin
dings with respect to competition but differ from prior findings with
respect to cost structure and growth opportunities. Overall the eviden
ce suggests that accounting earnings reflect information about future
economic rents generated by firms' assets-in-place. The evidence also
suggests, contrary to prior studies, that accounting earnings are not
very informative about firms' growth opportunities.