Strategic Withholding and Imprecision in Asset Measurement

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bertomeu, Jeremy; Cheynel, Edwige; Cianciaruso, Davide
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING RESEARCH
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0021-8456
• DOI: 10.1111/1475-679X.12390
• 发表日期: 2021
• 页码: 1523-1571
• 关键词: accounting measurement; voluntary disclosure; bad news; INFORMATION; conservatism; decisions; MARKET; RESTATEMENTS; manipulation; DYNAMICS

摘要

Does managing the production of information add value in economic environments where a manager may claim to be uninformed and withhold unfavorable news? We examine this question by nesting an optimal persuasion mechanism, controlling how evidence is organized, within a voluntary disclosure framework. Information has productive consequences because the firm uses it to make a continuous operating decision. The optimal reporting strategy features coarse information at the most unfavorable reported event if and only if the firm bears penalties for nondisclosure or positive disclosure costs. The model demonstrates the optimality of imprecise information over bad news in a voluntary disclosure environment, and that such imprecision increases the quality of public signals after considering strategic disclosure effects.