Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the usefulness of statistical studies of financial reports and stock market data for improving corporate financial reports.Design/methodology/approach – Analytical writing.Findings – It is often claimed that statistical studies of...

We analyze the earnings information and stock prices of S&P500 firms and find that investors following S&P500 stocks (i) respond more to pro forma earnings than to GAAP earnings, (ii) respond to an emphasis on pro forma earnings, and (iii) are fixated on pro forma earnings. We provide the first...

This study shows that firms collectively incur a cost for managing earnings and analyst expectations to meet earnings forecasts. We compare the coefficient in the regression of abnormal stock returns on earnings surprise (the earnings response coefficient (ERC)) across ranges of earnings...

How much news is there in aggregate accounting earnings? I provide evidence that earnings changes at the stock market level are correlated with new information about not only expected future cash flows but also discount rates. A comprehensive investigation of the link to discount rates reveals...

What is the link between stock returns and news about economic growth? Using consensus forecasts from the Philadelphia Fed's Survey of Professional Forecasters, I find that the univariate association between stock returns and GDP growth forecast surprises is indistinguishable from zero. While...

This study examines the effect of option volume relative to stock volume (O/S) on market response to earnings surprises. The market reaction per unit of earnings surprise is lower for firms that have high O/S prior to earnings announcement than for firms with low O/S prior to earnings...

The Securities and Exchange Commission has become increasingly concerned with the rising number of restatements to statements of cash flows (SCFs). Regulators and practitioners are generally more focused on the overstatement of operating cash flows, while the understatement of operating cash...

In this study, we examine the effect of investor sentiment on the stock market reaction to earnings news (i.e., the earnings response coefficient or ERC) for loss firms. We find that the ERC for loss firms' earnings increases is less positive as sentiment increases, contrary to the findings in...

We examine whether the level of trust in a country affects investors' perception and utilization of information transmitted by firms through financial disclosure. Specifically, we investigate the effect of societal trust on investor reactions to corporate earnings announcements. We test two...

The revelation of accounting fraud by the Olympus Corporation gave rise to shareholder allegations of audit failure against Olympus' auditors — Ernst & Young ShinNihon LLC and KPMG AZSA LLC — in 2011. In this study, we investigate whether the auditors' affiliation with Olympus contributes to...