TY - JOUR
T1 - Investor protection and price informativeness about future earnings
T2 - International evidence
AU - Haw, In Mu
AU - Hu, Bingbing
AU - Lee, Jay Junghun
AU - Wu, Woody
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments We thank Richard Sloan (editor), two anonymous referees, Bin Ke, Larry Lang, Gordon Richardson, T.J. Wong, and workshop participants at Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and the First International Symposium of Accounting and Finance at Shantou University for constructive comments and suggestions. In-Mu Haw gratefully acknowledges financial support from Texas Christian University. Bingbing Hu and Jay Junghun Lee gratefully acknowledge financial support from Hong Kong Baptist University. Woody Wu gratefully acknowledges financial support from Chinese University of Hong Kong.
PY - 2012/6
Y1 - 2012/6
N2 - This study draws on the investor protection literature to identify structural factors in a country's information environment that are likely to explain cross-country differences in the extent to which future earnings information is capitalized in current stock returns. Using a sample of 55,900 firm-years from 32 countries, we find that greater financial disclosure, higher quality earnings, and greater information dissemination through news media are associated with stock prices that are more informative about future earnings, whereas strong enforcement of insider trading laws is associated with stock prices that are less informative about future earnings. We also find that, on average, price informativeness about future earnings is greater in countries with strong investor protection. Our results illuminate the importance of structural factors constituting a country's information environment in explaining cross-country variation in price informativeness about future earnings.
AB - This study draws on the investor protection literature to identify structural factors in a country's information environment that are likely to explain cross-country differences in the extent to which future earnings information is capitalized in current stock returns. Using a sample of 55,900 firm-years from 32 countries, we find that greater financial disclosure, higher quality earnings, and greater information dissemination through news media are associated with stock prices that are more informative about future earnings, whereas strong enforcement of insider trading laws is associated with stock prices that are less informative about future earnings. We also find that, on average, price informativeness about future earnings is greater in countries with strong investor protection. Our results illuminate the importance of structural factors constituting a country's information environment in explaining cross-country variation in price informativeness about future earnings.
KW - Cross-country study
KW - Future earnings response coefficient (FERC)
KW - Investor protection institutions
KW - Price informativeness
KW - Structural factors
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84862831262&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11142-012-9181-z
DO - 10.1007/s11142-012-9181-z
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:84862831262
SN - 1380-6653
VL - 17
SP - 389
EP - 419
JO - Review of Accounting Studies
JF - Review of Accounting Studies
IS - 2
ER -