IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/joares/v59y2021i1p283-330.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do Risk Disclosures Matter When It Counts? Evidence from the Swiss Franc Shock

Author

Listed:
  • LUZI HAIL
  • MAXIMILIAN MUHN
  • DAVID OESCH

Abstract

We examine the relation between disclosure quality and information asymmetry among market participants following an exogenous shock to macroeconomic risk. In 2015, the Swiss National Bank abruptly announced that it would abandon the longstanding minimum euro‐Swiss franc exchange rate. We find evidence suggesting that firms with more transparent disclosures regarding their foreign exchange risk exposure ex ante exhibit significantly lower information asymmetry ex post. The information gap in bid‐ask spreads appears within 30 minutes of the announcement and persists for two weeks, during which new information gradually substitutes for past disclosures. We validate the information dynamics of past risk disclosures with three field surveys: (1) Sell‐side analysts emphasize the importance of existing (risk) disclosures in evaluating the translational and transactional effects of the currency shock. (2) Lending banks’ credit officers rely on past disclosures as the primary information source available for smaller (unlisted) firms in the immediate aftermath of the shock. (3) Investor‐relations managers use existing financial filings as a key resource when communicating with external stakeholders. The results suggest that historical disclosures help investors attenuate information asymmetry in light of unexpected news.

Suggested Citation

  • Luzi Hail & Maximilian Muhn & David Oesch, 2021. "Do Risk Disclosures Matter When It Counts? Evidence from the Swiss Franc Shock," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(1), pages 283-330, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:joares:v:59:y:2021:i:1:p:283-330
    DOI: 10.1111/1475-679X.12338
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-679X.12338
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1475-679X.12338?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. Drake, Michael S. & Roulstone, Darren T. & Thornock, Jacob R., 2016. "The usefulness of historical accounting reports," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 448-464.
    2. Doidge, Craig & Karolyi, G. Andrew & Stulz, Rene M., 2004. "Why are foreign firms listed in the U.S. worth more?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 205-238, February.
    3. Acemoglu, Daron & Johnson, Simon & Kermani, Amir & Kwak, James & Mitton, Todd, 2016. "The value of connections in turbulent times: Evidence from the United States," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(2), pages 368-391.
    4. Brown, Lawrence D. & Call, Andrew C. & Clement, Michael B. & Sharp, Nathan Y., 2016. "The activities of buy-side analysts and the determinants of their stock recommendations," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 139-156.
    5. Beaver, Wh, 1968. "Information Content Of Annual Earnings Announcements," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 6, pages 67-92.
    6. 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.
    7. Christian Leuz & Catherine Schrand, 2009. "Disclosure and the Cost of Capital: Evidence from Firms' Responses to the Enron Shock," NBER Working Papers 14897, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. McInish, Thomas H & Wood, Robert A, 1992. "An Analysis of Intraday Patterns in Bid/Ask Spreads for NYSE Stocks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 753-764, June.
    9. Eduardo Cavallo & Sebastian Galiani & Ilan Noy & Juan Pantano, 2013. "Catastrophic Natural Disasters and Economic Growth," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(5), pages 1549-1561, December.
    10. Jonathan L. Rogers & Douglas J. Skinner & Sarah L. C. Zechman, 2017. "Run EDGAR Run: SEC Dissemination in a High‐Frequency World," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 459-505, May.
    11. Leuz, C & Verrecchia, RE, 2000. "The economic consequences of increased disclosure," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38, pages 91-124.
    12. Dichev, Ilia D. & Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Rajgopal, Shiva, 2013. "Earnings quality: Evidence from the field," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 1-33.
    13. Matthias EFING & Rüdiger FAHLENBRACH & Christoph HERPFER & Philipp KRÜGER, 2015. "How Do Investors and Firms React to an Unexpected Currency Appreciation Shock?," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 15-65, Swiss Finance Institute, revised Jan 2016.
    14. Christensen, Hans B. & Hail, Luzi & Leuz, Christian, 2013. "Mandatory IFRS reporting and changes in enforcement," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 147-177.
    15. Karthik Balakrishnan & Mary Brooke Billings & Bryan Kelly & Alexander Ljungqvist, 2014. "Shaping Liquidity: On the Causal Effects of Voluntary Disclosure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(5), pages 2237-2278, October.
    16. Lee, Charles M. C., 1992. "Earnings news and small traders : An intraday analysis," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2-3), pages 265-302, August.
    17. Shai Bernstein & Xavier Giroud & Richard R. Townsend, 2016. "The Impact of Venture Capital Monitoring," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(4), pages 1591-1622, August.
    18. Holger Daske & Luzi Hail & Christian Leuz & Rodrigo Verdi, 2008. "Mandatory IFRS Reporting around the World: Early Evidence on the Economic Consequences," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(5), pages 1085-1142, December.
    19. Lang, Mark & Stice-Lawrence, Lorien, 2015. "Textual analysis and international financial reporting: Large sample evidence," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 110-135.
    20. Shroff, Nemit & Verdi, Rodrigo S. & Yost, Benjamin P., 2017. "When does the peer information environment matter?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 183-214.
    21. Brown, Lawrence D & Rozeff, Michael S, 1978. "The Superiority of Analyst Forecasts as Measures of Expectations: Evidence from Earnings," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 33(1), pages 1-16, March.
    22. Abadie, Alberto & Diamond, Alexis & Hainmueller, Jens, 2010. "Synthetic Control Methods for Comparative Case Studies: Estimating the Effect of California’s Tobacco Control Program," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 105(490), pages 493-505.
    23. Taylor A. Begley & Amiyatosh Purnanandam & Kuncheng Zheng, 2017. "The Strategic Underreporting of Bank Risk," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(10), pages 3376-3415.
    24. Eugene Soltes, 2014. "Incorporating Field Data into Archival Research," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 521-540, May.
    25. Brown, Stephen & Hillegeist, Stephen A. & Lo, Kin, 2009. "The effect of earnings surprises on information asymmetry," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 208-225, June.
    26. Lang, Mark & Maffett, Mark, 2011. "Transparency and liquidity uncertainty in crisis periods," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 101-125.
    27. Rajan, Raghuram G, 1992. "Insiders and Outsiders: The Choice between Informed and Arm's-Length Debt," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(4), pages 1367-1400, September.
    28. Frank Heflin & Dana Wallace, 2017. "The BP Oil Spill: Shareholder Wealth Effects and Environmental Disclosures," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(3-4), pages 337-374, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lisa Yao Liu & Shirley Lu, 2023. "The Effect of Firms' Information Exposure on Safeguarding Employee Health: Evidence from COVID‐19," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(3), pages 891-933, June.
    2. Block, Joern & Ulrich, Lennart, 2023. "Are family owners and managers good stewards in global crises? Evidence from stock market reactions to Covid-19," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 14(1).
    3. Bingyi Chen & Jenelle K. Conaway, 2022. "Do U.S. Investors Value Foreign Component Auditors?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(3), pages 805-851, June.
    4. Peter Fiechter & Jörg‐Markus Hitz & Nico Lehmann, 2022. "Real Effects of a Widespread CSR Reporting Mandate: Evidence from the European Union's CSR Directive," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(4), pages 1499-1549, September.
    5. Richard A. Benton & J. Adam Cobb & Timothy Werner, 2022. "Firm partisan positioning, polarization, and risk communication: Examining voluntary disclosures on COVID‐19," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 697-723, April.

    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. 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).
    2. 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.
    3. Roychowdhury, Sugata & Shroff, Nemit & Verdi, Rodrigo S., 2019. "The effects of financial reporting and disclosure on corporate investment: A review," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2).
    4. Wang, Fengrong & Mbanyele, William & Muchenje, Linda, 2022. "Economic policy uncertainty and stock liquidity: The mitigating effect of information disclosure," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    5. Hans B. Christensen & Luzi Hail & Christian Leuz, 2021. "Mandatory CSR and sustainability reporting: economic analysis and literature review," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 1176-1248, September.
    6. Christian Gross, 2016. "The Effect of the German Accounting Law Modernization Act on the Comparability of Private Local GAAP and IFRS Firms," Schmalenbach Business Review, Springer;Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft, vol. 17(3), pages 423-460, December.
    7. Thorsten Knauer & Arnt Wöhrmann, 2010. "Rahmenbedingungen, Charakteristika und Konsequenzen freiwilliger Unternehmenspublizität – State of the Art und neue Perspektiven der empirischen Forschung," Metrika: International Journal for Theoretical and Applied Statistics, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 235-254, November.
    8. Nagar, Venky & Schoenfeld, Jordan & Wellman, Laura, 2019. "The effect of economic policy uncertainty on investor information asymmetry and management disclosures," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 36-57.
    9. Cascino, Stefano & Clatworthy, Mark A. & Osma, Beatriz Garcia & Gassen, Joachim & Imam, Shahed, 2021. "The usefulness of financial accounting information: evidence from the field," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 107569, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Aobdia, Daniel & Cheng, Lin, 2018. "Unionization, product market competition, and strategic disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 331-357.
    11. Fargher, Neil & Wee, Marvin, 2019. "The impact of Ball and Brown (1968) on generations of research," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 55-72.
    12. Joachim Gassen & Hollis A. Skaife & David Veenman, 2020. "Illiquidity and the Measurement of Stock Price Synchronicity," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(1), pages 419-456, March.
    13. Billings, Mary Brooke & Jennings, Robert & Lev, Baruch, 2015. "On guidance and volatility," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 161-180.
    14. Karthik Balakrishnan & Mary Brooke Billings & Bryan Kelly & Alexander Ljungqvist, 2014. "Shaping Liquidity: On the Causal Effects of Voluntary Disclosure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(5), pages 2237-2278, October.
    15. Rajgopal, Shiva & Venkatachalam, Mohan, 2011. "Financial reporting quality and idiosyncratic return volatility," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 1-20.
    16. Rajgopal, Shiva & Venkatachalam, Mohan, 2011. "Financial reporting quality and idiosyncratic return volatility," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1-2), pages 1-20, February.
    17. Cheng, Hua & Huang, Dayong & Luo, Yan, 2020. "Corporate disclosure quality and institutional investors' holdings during market downturns∗," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    18. Marc Badia & Miguel Duro & Bjorn N. Jorgensen & Gaizka Ormazabal & Hans B. Christensen, 2020. "The Informational Effects of Tightening Oil and Gas Disclosure Rules," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(3), pages 1720-1755, September.
    19. De George, Emmanuel T. & Li, Xi & Shivakumar, Lakshmanan, 2016. "A review of the IFRS adoption literature," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 67599, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    20. Ying Cao & Linda A. Myers & Albert Tsang & Yong George Yang, 2017. "Management forecasts and the cost of equity capital: international evidence," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 791-838, June.

    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:joares:v:59:y:2021:i:1:p:283-330. 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=0021-8456 .

    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.