The use of more or less optimistic language in corporate disclosures has been the subject of increased interest in the academic literature. We add to this stream of research by examining the manager-specific component in the tone of earnings-announcement related conference calls. We find that...

This paper investigates the costs, benefits and frequency of management earnings guidance issued by firms manipulating earnings. We find that, when manipulations are detected, misstating firms issuing guidance and their managers incur additional legal costs, as reflected in the higher settlement...

More companies are disclosing free cash flow in their earnings announcements. Companies choose a range of definitions for disclosed free cash flow, none of which correspond to the theoretical definition. The most common definition (in 38% of free cash flow disclosures) is operating cash flow...

We document that, when revising their short-term earnings forecasts in response to management guidance, analysts wishing to curry favor with management weight the guidance more heavily than predicted based on the credibility and usefulness of the guidance. This overweighting of guidance is...

We document that, when revising their short-term earnings forecasts in response to management guidance, analysts wishing to curry favor with management weight the guidance more heavily than predicted based on the credibility and usefulness of the guidance. This overweighting of guidance is...

More companies are disclosing free cash flow in their earnings announcements. Companies choose a range of definitions, almost none of which correspond to the theoretical finance definition. The most common definition (in 40% of free cash flow disclosures) is operating cash flow minus gross...