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The Effects of Conservative Reporting on Investor Disagreement

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  • Carlo D'Augusta
  • Sasson Bar-Yosef
  • Annalisa Prencipe

Abstract

We examine whether the level of a firm's conditional conservatism affects investor disagreement around earnings announcement dates. Investor disagreement is relevant for its repercussions on stock market efficiency. However, the literature related to the effect of firms’ reporting policies on disagreement is scant. Prior research suggests that conservatism, by requiring higher verifiability of profits, constrains earnings overstatements and encourages more complete revelations of losses, thus improving the information environment. In this paper, we further hypothesize that these effects of conservatism enhance news credibility and decrease information asymmetry, particularly for bad news announcements. This results in a lower disagreement and improved interpretation of earnings news. We consistently find that conservatism measures are negatively associated with proxies of announcement-time investor disagreement and that this effect is stronger when the firm is reporting bad news. Additional analyses indicate that the impact of conservatism is stronger when market surprise to the announcement is greater, while it is weaker in the presence of frequent and precise voluntary disclosure that preempts the earnings announcement. Finally, we show that a higher percentage of institutional investors’ ownership and a higher level of commitment to conservatism reinforce the impact of the latter.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlo D'Augusta & Sasson Bar-Yosef & Annalisa Prencipe, 2016. "The Effects of Conservative Reporting on Investor Disagreement," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 451-485, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:euract:v:25:y:2016:i:3:p:451-485
    DOI: 10.1080/09638180.2015.1042890
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    Cited by:

    1. D’Augusta, Carlo & Grossetti, Francesco, 2023. "How did Covid-19 affect investors’ interpretation of earnings news? The role of accounting conservatism," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    2. Carlo D'Augusta & Matthew D. DeAngelis, 2020. "Does Accounting Conservatism Discipline Qualitative Disclosure? Evidence From Tone Management in the MD&A," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(4), pages 2287-2318, December.
    3. D’Augusta, Carlo & De Vito, Antonio & Grossetti, Francesco, 2023. "Words and numbers: A disagreement story from post-earnings announcement return and volume patterns," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).

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