This study examines the predictive power of comprehensive income and its individual components within the homogenous institutional setting of German IFRS firms. The results could be relevant for the standard setters IASB and FASB and their joint project “Financial Statement Presentation”. We...

Financial analysts comprise one important group of information intermediaries between firms and investors (Healy & Palepu, 2001). They have great potential to decrease information asymmetry between firms and investors, resulting in better allocation of capital. Analysts' work is influenced by,...

Using an international sample, I investigate whether the extent of firms' disclosure of their accounting policies in the annual report is associated with properties of analysts' earnings forecasts. Controlling for firm- and country-level variables, I find that the level of accounting policy...

In 1995 Congress passed the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (PSLRA), which grants public companies a safe harbor from liability for forward-looking statements (FLS). Because investors cannot reasonably assess the legitimacy of forward-looking information for initial public offerings...

The safe harbor provisions have increased over the years, following the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (PSLRA) of 1996 and the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act (SLUSA) of 1998. The objective is to encourage more earnings guidance by managers. However, a number of firms like...

In the Chinese securities market, with its characteristics of influence through personal relationships (Guanxi) and underdeveloped standards of law and enforcement, can independent directors play the supervisory role expected by securities regulators? In this study we use the degree of precision...

For a sample of commercial banks during 1994 – 2008, we find that accumulated fair value adjustments for interest-bearing investment securities are positively associated with future interest income and total realized income from these investments. Additional tests reveal that accumulated fair...

We assess the use of bank loan information in predicting the timing to default. We use unique data on defaults in small and medium enterprises maintained by the Central Bank of Portugal which includes financial accounting and macroeconomic indicators, as well as non-financial information. The...

Do accruals-based earnings provide better information about future operating cash flows than do operating cash flows themselves, as predicted by the Financial Accounting Standards Board's conceptual framework (FASB 1978)? While this is a foundational issue in accounting, because it addresses the...

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issues comment letters suggesting revisions to firms' tax disclosures with the goal of improving the informativeness of these disclosures. I examine if SEC-prompted revisions to firms' tax disclosures are associated with changes in the informativeness...