Academic Research Seminar (Jointly supported by: SESAMI Program / RIEB Seminar / TJAR Workshop)
| Date&Time | Monday, March 14, 2016, 11:00am-12:30pm |
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| Place | Room 208 at the Graduate School of Business Administration (Main Building, 2nd Floor) |
| Intended Audience | Faculties, Graduate Students, Undergraduates, and People with Equivalent Knowledge |
| Language | English |
| Note | Copies of the paper will be available at Office of Promoting Research Collaboration. |
11:00am-12:30pm
| Speaker | Jay Junghun LEE |
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| Affiliation | College of Management, University of Massachusetts Boston |
| Topic | Financial Statement Comparability and Analysts' Over-optimism for Accruals |
| Abstract | This study examines the role of financial statement comparability in mitigating analysts' over-optimism for accruals. Prior research shows that sell-side analysts do not fully incorporate accrual information in anticipating future earnings and thus tend to issue more optimistic forecasts for firms with a higher level of accruals. Using the financial statement comparability measure developed by De Franco, Kothari and Verdi (2011), we find that analysts' over-optimism for accruals is significantly moderated for firms with a high degree of financial statement comparability. Our evidence suggests that financial statement comparability helps analysts process and interpret accrual information, thereby improving their forecast accuracy. |