Keywords

market attention, earnings announcement timing, earnings announcementscheduling, earnings announcement notifications, strategic disclosure

Abstract

We investigate whether managers “hide” bad news by announcing earnings during periods of low attention, or by providing less forewarning of an upcoming earnings announcement. Our findings are consistent with managers reporting bad news after market hours, on busy days, and with less advance notice, and with earnings receiving less attention in these settings. Paradoxically, our findings indicate that managers also report bad news on Fridays, but we do not find lower attention on Fridays. Further, we find negative returns when the market is notified of an upcoming Friday earnings announcement, which is consistent with investors inferring forthcoming bad news.

Original Publication Citation

“Market (In)attention and the strategic scheduling and timing of earnings announcements” (with Ed deHaan and Terry Shevlin). Journal of Accounting and Economics (2015) 60:36-55.

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2015

Publisher

Journal of Accounting and Economics

Language

English

College

Marriott School of Business

Department

Accountancy

University Standing at Time of Publication

Full Professor

Included in

Accounting Commons

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