Standard setters and most academics maintain that accounting standards ought to rest on a set of guiding principles stated explicitly in a “conceptual framework.” The FASB and IASB are currently involved in a project to refine conceptual framework documents developed earlier. At this point,...

This study provides descriptive evidence on the controversial trend adopted by many firms in recent years of reporting earnings figures on a "pro forma" basis. Pro forma earnings exclude normal income statement items that managers deem to be nonrecurring or nonrepresentative of ongoing...

This study provides an integrated analysis of the interrelations among (1) environmental disclosure, (2) environmental performance, and (3) economic performance. Based on the argument that management's (unobservable) overall strategy affects each of these corporate responsibilities, we...

Researchers frequently proxy for managers' non‐GAAP disclosures using performance metrics available through analyst forecast data providers (FDPs), such as I/B/E/S. The extent to which FDP‐provided earnings are a valid proxy for managers' non‐GAAP reporting, however, has been debated...

The SEC has recently raised renewed concerns about firms' reporting of adjusted (non-GAAP) earnings metrics. Regulators have significant interest in understanding the factors that help constrain non-GAAP reporting. We first provide evidence on the relation between securities litigation risk and...

Managers have a variety of tools at their disposal to influence stakeholder perceptions. Earnings management and the strategic reporting of non‐GAAP earnings are just two of the available menu choices. We explore how real earnings management and accruals management influence the probability...

Prior research finds an association between short selling volume and aggressive non-GAAPearnings disclosures but does not explore whether increased short selling pressure actuallyconstrains aggressive non-GAAP reporting. Attribution of causality is problematic in this setting,due to multiple...

The Securities and Exchange Commission encourages the presentation of information or data in graphical form to improve users’ ability to understand financial disclosures. We observe a dramatic increase in the disclosure of both qualitative and quantitative infographics in 10-Ks from 2003-2020....

We use a novel data set to examine the across-time consistency and across-firm comparability of firms’ non-GAAP earnings disclosures. Given widespread concern about non-GAAP reporting among regulators, standard setters, the investor community, and academics, our investigation provides timely...

We use a novel dataset to examine the across-time consistency and across-firm comparability of firms’ non-GAAP earnings disclosures. We begin by identifying firms that change their non-GAAP earnings definition from one year to the next. These deviations are uncommon, but when managers change...