IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/abacus/v60y2024i4p852-891.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Information or Noise? Examining the Effect of Discretionary Disclosure of Accounting Estimates on Financial Analyst Forecasts

Author

Listed:
  • Jeff P. Boone
  • Xueyun (Sherry) Sun
  • Jennifer Yin

Abstract

Whether discretionary disclosure of accounting estimates increases or decreases the decision usefulness of financial information is a fundamental issue in accounting and finance. Our paper speaks to this issue by examining the effect of discretionary disclosure of accounting estimates on the forecasting behaviour of financial analysts, who are sophisticated users of financial information and play a crucial role as an information intermediary in the capital markets. We find that discretionary disclosure of accounting estimates (made in the 10‐K management discussion and analysis and financial statement footnotes) reduces analyst forecast errors and analysts’ tendency to round their annual earnings forecasts. These effects are more pronounced when analysts issue forecasts for companies with high accounting reporting complexity. Overall, the results suggest that discretionary disclosure of accounting estimates reduces information costs by providing relevant information for analysts’ forecasting decisions.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeff P. Boone & Xueyun (Sherry) Sun & Jennifer Yin, 2024. "Information or Noise? Examining the Effect of Discretionary Disclosure of Accounting Estimates on Financial Analyst Forecasts," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 60(4), pages 852-891, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:abacus:v:60:y:2024:i:4:p:852-891
    DOI: 10.1111/abac.12343
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/abac.12343
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/abac.12343?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dechow, Patricia M. & Kothari, S. P. & L. Watts, Ross, 1998. "The relation between earnings and cash flows," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 133-168, May.
    2. Stock, James H & Wright, Jonathan H & Yogo, Motohiro, 2002. "A Survey of Weak Instruments and Weak Identification in Generalized Method of Moments," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(4), pages 518-529, October.
    3. Amir Rubin, 2008. "Political Views and Corporate Decision Making: The Case of Corporate Social Responsibility," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 43(3), pages 337-360, August.
    4. Patricia M. Dechow & Richard G. Sloan & Amy P. Sweeney, 1996. "Causes and Consequences of Earnings Manipulation: An Analysis of Firms Subject to Enforcement Actions by the SEC," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(1), pages 1-36, March.
    5. Jere R. Francis & Stevanie S. Neuman & Nathan J. Newton, 2019. "Does Tax Planning Affect Analysts' Forecast Accuracy?†," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(4), pages 2663-2694, December.
    6. Hausman, Jerry, 2015. "Specification tests in econometrics," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 38(2), pages 112-134.
    7. Marco Maria Mattei & Petya Platikanova, 2017. "Do product market threats affect analyst forecast precision?," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 1628-1665, December.
    8. Christian Leuz & Peter D. Wysocki, 2016. "The Economics of Disclosure and Financial Reporting Regulation: Evidence and Suggestions for Future Research," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 525-622, May.
    9. Jones, Jj, 1991. "Earnings Management During Import Relief Investigations," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 193-228.
    10. Subramanyam, K. R., 1996. "The pricing of discretionary accruals," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1-3), pages 249-281, October.
    11. Ole†Kristian Hope, 2003. "Accounting Policy Disclosures and Analysts' Forecasts," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(2), pages 295-321, June.
    12. Blankespoor, Elizabeth & deHaan, Ed & Marinovic, Iván, 2020. "Disclosure processing costs, investors’ information choice, and equity market outcomes: A review," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2).
    13. Arikan, Mazhar & Kara, Mehmet & Masli, Adi & Xi, Yaoyi, 2023. "Political euphoria and corporate disclosures: An investigation of CEO partisan alignment with the president of the United States," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(2).
    14. Dechow, Patricia M., 1994. "Accounting earnings and cash flows as measures of firm performance : The role of accounting accruals," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 3-42, July.
    15. Nelson, Karen K. & Barth, Mary E. & Cram, Donald, 2001. "Accruals and the Prediction of Future Cash Flows," Research Papers 1594r, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    16. Clement, Michael B., 1999. "Analyst forecast accuracy: Do ability, resources, and portfolio complexity matter?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 285-303, July.
    17. Jacob, John & Lys, Thomas Z. & Neale, Margaret A., 1999. "Expertise in forecasting performance of security analysts," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 51-82, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dechow, Patricia & Ge, Weili & Schrand, Catherine, 2010. "Understanding earnings quality: A review of the proxies, their determinants and their consequences," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 344-401, December.
    2. Kothari, S. P., 2001. "Capital markets research in accounting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 105-231, September.
    3. Oz, Ibrahim Onur & Yelkenci, Tezer, 2018. "Examination of real and accrual earnings management: A cross-country analysis of legal origin under IFRS," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 24-37.
    4. Adnan Shoaib & Muhammad A. Siddiqui, 2022. "Earning information content changes based on accrual measures and quality measures: Evidences from member countries of Asia Pacific trade agreement," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(1), pages 1526-1546, January.
    5. Brandon Julio & Youngsuk Yook, 2016. "Earnings Management and Corporate Investment Decisions," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2016-086, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    6. Badertscher, Brad A. & Collins, Daniel W. & Lys, Thomas Z., 2012. "Discretionary accounting choices and the predictive ability of accruals with respect to future cash flows," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 330-352.
    7. Chad R. Larson & Richard Sloan & Jenny Zha Giedt, 2018. "Defining, measuring, and modeling accruals: a guide for researchers," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 827-871, September.
    8. Sudip Datta & Mai Iskandar‐Datta & Vivek Singh, 2014. "Opaque financial reports and R2: Revisited," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(1), pages 10-17, January.
    9. Takashi Obinata, 2002. "Concept and Relevance of Income," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-171, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    10. Manu Gupta & Inder K. Khurana & Raynolde Pereira, 2008. "Legal Inforcement, Short Maturity Debt, and the Incentive to Manage Earnings," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 51(4), pages 619-639, November.
    11. Kothari, S.P. & Leone, Andrew J. & Wasley, Charles E., 2005. "Performance matched discretionary accrual measures," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 163-197, February.
    12. Juan García Lara & Beatriz Osma & Evi Neophytou, 2009. "Earnings quality in ex‐post failed firms," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(2), pages 119-138.
    13. Shadi Farshadfar & Reza M. Monem, 2019. "Further evidence of the relationship between accruals and future cash flows," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 59(1), pages 143-176, March.
    14. Jung Ho Choi, 2021. "Accrual Accounting and Resource Allocation: A General Equilibrium Analysis," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(4), pages 1179-1219, September.
    15. Li Yu (Colly) He & Sue Wright & Elaine Evans, 2018. "Is fair value information relevant to investment decision-making: Evidence from the Australian agricultural sector?," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 43(4), pages 555-574, November.
    16. Md Humayun Kabir & Fawzi Laswad & Md Ainul Islam, 2010. "Impact of IFRS in New Zealand on Accounts and Earnings Quality," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 20(4), pages 343-357, December.
    17. Chaney, Paul K. & Faccio, Mara & Parsley, David, 2011. "The quality of accounting information in politically connected firms," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 58-76.
    18. Richardson, Scott A. & Sloan, Richard G. & Soliman, Mark T. & Tuna, Irem, 2005. "Accrual reliability, earnings persistence and stock prices," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 437-485, September.
    19. Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Rajgopal, Shiva, 2005. "The economic implications of corporate financial reporting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1-3), pages 3-73, December.
    20. Jorge Farinha & Luis Filipe Viana, 2006. "Board structure and modified audit opinions: the case of the Portuguese Stock Exchange," CEF.UP Working Papers 0609, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:abacus:v:60:y:2024:i:4:p:852-891. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0001-3072 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.