对自愿性信息披露的法律环境的影响The Effect of Legal Environment on Voluntary Disclosure.pdfVIP

THE ACCOUNTING REVIEW Vol. 77, No. 1 January 2002 pp. 25–50 The Effect of Legal Environment on Voluntary Disclosure: Evidence from Management Earnings Forecasts Issued in U.S. and Canadian Markets Stephen P. Baginski John M. Hassell Michael D. Kimbrough Indiana University ABSTRACT: Citing fear of legal liability as a partial explanation, prior research documents (1) managers’ reluctance to voluntarily disclose management earn- ings forecasts, and (2) greater forecast disclosure frequencies in periods of bad news. We provide evidence on how management earnings forecast dis- closure differs between the United States (U.S.) and Canada, two otherwise similar business environments with different legal regimes. Canadian securities laws and judicial interpretations create a far less litigious environment than exists in the U.S. We find a greater frequency of management earnings fore- cast disclosure in Canada relative to the U.S. Further, although U.S. managers are relatively more likely to issue forecasts during interim periods in which earnings decrease, Canadian managers do not exhibit that tendency. Instead, Canadian managers issue more forecasts when earnings are increasing, and their forecasts are of annual rather than interim earnings. Also consistent with a less litigious environment, Canadian managers issue more precise and longer-term forecasts. These findings hold after controlling for other determi- nants of management earnings forecast disclosure that might differ between We thank workshop participants at the University of Georgia, Washington University, and Indiana University for comments