This study examines the relation between a firm’s supply chain hierarchical position and its information quality. We predict that firms located in a more upstream position within the supply chain network are exposed to greater demand variance, thereby leading to decreased quality of reported earnings and greater uncertainty in the public information available to investors. Consistent with this prediction, we find that firm’s vertical position in the supply chain network is negatively associated with its information quality (i.e., poorer earnings quality and higher stock return synchronicity). Our results are robust to the matched sample analysis, residual analysis, and alternative measures of information quality. We further show that the positive relation between firm’s hierarchical position and stock return synchronicity is more pronounced for firms facing higher information asymmetry. Overall, our findings suggest that a more upstream position in the supply chain network entails not only operational costs associated with amplified demand uncertainty but also costs related to the quality of reported information on which capital providers and other stakeholders rely.

The role of credit default swaps (CDS) in the 2008 financial crisis has been widely debated among regulators, investors, and researchers. While CDS were blamed for destabilizing the financial system, they remain effective tools for hedging credit risk, especially for major banks, and produce positive informational externalities to market participants. This paper examines whether the introduction of CDS enhances the amount of firm-specific information impounded in stock prices. We use stock return synchronicity to measure the amount of firm-specific information reflected in stock prices, with more firm-specific information being associated with a lower level of synchronicity. We find that a firm’s stock return synchronicity decreases after the commencement of CDS trading. This finding is robust to different model specifications, synchronicity measures, and endogeneity controlling methodologies. Furthermore, the decrease in stock return synchronicity is more pronounced for CDS firms with higher credit risk. Overall, our evidence supports the positive role of CDS in improving informativeness of stock prices.