SUMMARY
Prior studies identify three factors that contribute to the low contemporaneous association between returns (prices) and earnings: lack of timeliness of earnings capturing value relevant information, noise in earnings, and transitory elements in earnings. This study seeks to identify whether these factors contribute to the observed inter-temporal decline in the contemporaneous association between returns (prices) and earnings documented in recent literature. Prior studies do not explicitly examine the affect of these factors on the inter-temporal decline, and the extant evidence is mixed. Empirical evidence presented here indicates that lack of timeliness of earnings and value-irrelevant noise in earnings have increased over time, both contributing to the documented inter-temporal decline in the contemporaneous association between returns (prices) and earnings.