The Usefulness and Limited Supply of Disclosure Accessibility

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Chen, Qi; Corona, Carlos; Zhang, Yun
• 署名单位: Duke University; University System of Ohio; Ohio State University; George Washington University
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2023.03748
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: accounting; double moral hazard; disclosure; READABILITY

摘要

Firm disclosures are mostly unstructured and textual, imposing substantial processing costs on investors. We examine firms' incentives to enhance the accessibility of these disclosures by expending resources to make them easier for investors to process. We show that an equilibrium with a positive supply of accessibility can be difficult to sustain-even though investors view accessibility as a favorable signal of firm productivity. We further explore how the supply of accessibility interacts with the quality of the numerical (easier-to-analyze) signals and textual (harder-to-analyze) disclosures. Our analysis generates predictions consistent with empirical evidence and offers a framework for evaluating policy initiatives and accounting standards aimed at improving accessibility.