Table 3.

Quartile analysis of financial variables.

Variable	Quartile	France	Germany	Italy	Spain	Variable	Quartile	France	Germany	Italy	Spain
$\frac{{TA}_{i,t}}{{Assets}_{i,t-1}}$	Max	−0.0001	0.0000	−0.0007	0.0000	$\frac{{CFO}_{i.t}}{{Assets}_{i.t-1}}$	Max	0.4022	0.5507	0.4265	0.5080
	Upper quartile	−0.0166	−0.0201	−0.0278	−0.0123		Upper quartile	0.0949	0.1167	0.1175	0.0984
	Median	−0.0333	−0.0375	−0.0449	−0.0271		Median	0.0541	0.0734	0.0695	0.0500
	Lower quartile	−0.0563	−0.0593	−0.0702	−0.0452		Lower quartile	0.0059	0.0281	0.0311	0.0056
	Min	−0.2526	−0.2406	−0.2628	−0.2176		Min	−1.0969	−0.8300	−0.4135	−0.3402
$\frac{{\mathit{EXP}}_{i.t}}{{Assets}_{i.t-1}}$	Max	3.6485	5.5128	5.2131	3.0135	$\frac{100}{{Assets}_{i,t-1}}$	Max	0.1754	0.2482	0.4487	0.1803
	Upper quartile	1.1827	1.3164	1.0641	0.7839		Upper quartile	0.0061	0.0035	0.0039	0.0039
	Median	0.8043	0.8760	0.7373	0.4149		Median	0.0011	0.0007	0.0007	0.0006
	Lower quartile	0.4668	0.4467	0.4720	0.0559		Lower quartile	0.0001	0.0001	0.0002	0.0001
	Min	0.0073	0.0075	0.0096	0.0038		Min	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
$\frac{{TDA}_{i,t}}{{Assets}_{i,t-1}}$	Max	1.1755	1.3280	1.5638	1.5738	$\frac{{\Delta Sales}_{i,t}}{{Assets}_{i,t-1}}$	Max	1.1704	1.4803	2.4265	0.9237
	Upper quartile	0.5165	0.5492	0.5849	0.5920		Upper quartile	0.0883	0.1039	0.1265	0.0507
	Median	0.3428	0.3515	0.4162	0.3755		Median	0.0156	0.0244	0.0286	0.0053
	Lower quartile	0.1553	0.1283	0.2383	0.0818		Lower quartile	−0.0358	−0.0305	−0.0291	−0.0142
	Min	0.0000	0.0000	0.0019	0.0000		Min	−0.8932	−1.0256	−0.6419	−0.5317
$\frac{{Sales}_{i,t}}{{Assets}_{i,t-1}}$	Max	3.7180	5.3600	5.0486	3.0616	$\frac{{Sales}_{i.t-1}}{{Assets}_{i.t-1}}$	Max	4.1466	4.5860	2.9356	2.7092
	Upper quartile	1.1990	1.3846	1.1542	0.8150		Upper quartile	1.1602	1.3137	1.0391	0.8057
	Median	0.7861	0.9179	0.7783	0.4194		Median	0.7777	0.8996	0.7401	0.4338
	Lower quartile	0.4055	0.4302	0.4835	0.0730		Lower quartile	0.4030	0.4294	0.4795	0.0652
	Min	0.0001	0.0019	0.0021	0.0001		Min	0.0000	0.0018	0.0000	0.0001
${RoA}_{i,t}$	Max	0.5282	0.4824	0.6568	0.3298	${DEBT}_{i.t}$	Max	8.8388	6.7813	12.3630	25.8177
	Upper quartile	0.0801	0.0952	0.0832	0.0679		Upper quartile	0.9637	1.0043	1.4760	1.6707
	Median	0.0368	0.0487	0.0425	0.0314		Median	0.4713	0.4603	0.7582	0.8131
	Lower quartile	−0.0235	−0.0043	−0.0014	−0.0065		Lower quartile	0.1710	0.1405	0.3506	0.3583
	Min	−1.1805	−1.0368	−0.4746	−0.3240		Min	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
${BtM}_{i.t}$	Max	5.9057	4.4384	5.4987	36.3510	$\mathit{ln}\left({Assets}_{i.t}\right)$	Max	18.3281	18.5000	18.5128	18.3418
	Upper quartile	1.1400	0.9945	1.1778	1.1670		Upper quartile	13.4782	13.5465	13.3459	14.1391
	Median	0.6728	0.6039	0.6813	0.6643		Median	11.4688	11.8897	11.9211	11.9847
	Lower quartile	0.3742	0.3371	0.3798	0.3530		Lower quartile	9.7676	10.3309	10.2341	10.2673
	Min	0.0315	0.0477	0.0554	0.0434		Min	6.3572	6.1321	5.9873	6.9430

Note: This table shows the main quartiles of the financial variables used disaggregated by country. Values are shown for the variables in Eqs (2), (4), (6), i.e.: TA: Total accruals defined as income from continuing operation minus the cash flow from operations; CFO: Operating cash-flows; Sales: Revenue; EXP: Difference between operating revenues and operating income (EBIT); Assets: Total assets; ΔSales: Difference in revenue between two consecutive fiscal years or sales growth; TDA: Total depreciable assets; RoA: Return on Assets; Ln(Assets): Log-asset; BtM: Book-to-Market ratio; DEBT: Level of indebtedness measured by Debt-to-Book value ratio.