Prior literature shows that earnings have come to explain less stock price movement over time, suggesting that firm fundamental information has become less important. In this paper, we replace earnings with earnings announcement returns as a measure of firm fundamental news and find that these...

This study examines whether one firm's choice of reporting frequency generates negative externalities for other firms. We find that firms lose investor attention when more of their peers report quarterly instead of semi-annually, and such loss of attention is associated with a decrease in market...

Prior literature shows that earnings have come to explain less stock price movement over time, suggesting that firm fundamental information has become less important. In this paper, we replace earnings with earnings announcement returns as a measure of firm fundamental news and find that these...

We propose that extrapolative beliefs about earnings announcement (EA) returns may contribute to our understanding of EA return patterns. We construct a theoretically-motivated measure of extrapolative investors' expectations based on a stock's recent history of EA returns. We then show that...

We present new evidence on the importance of trust in financial decision-making and asset valuation. We predict that less trusting individuals will have a preference for dividend-paying stocks, and that the trust level of the investor base will interact with dividend payments to affect asset...

We study the descriptiveness of the “unravelling” prediction in the 1890s streetcar industry. In this historical setting, capital-intensive streetcar companies gain the opportunity to disclose their earnings to dispersed investors via a new, quarterly newspaper supplement. We document that a...

We explore the landscape of public company auditing around the introduction of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 1934. Using a broad sample of historical annual reports spanning several decades, we document that most public companies obtained audits even before the SEC’s audit...