Journal of Accounting and Economics Vol. 72 No. 1 2021
Qualitative characteristics of non-GAAP disclosures and non-GAAP earnings quality
Abstract
We examine how the qualitative characteristics of a non-GAAP earnings disclosure reveal the quality of the non-GAAP performance metric itself. We measure the qualitative aspects of the non-GAAP disclosure using an index of 12 hand-coded characteristics and presentation choices that provide context to non-GAAP disclosures. We find that more transparent qualitative information in non-GAAP disclosures is associated with more transitory non-GAAP exclusions and a lower likelihood that managers will aggressively exclude expenses in calculating non-GAAP earnings to meet or beat analysts’ forecasts. We also find that the association between non-GAAP exclusions and earnings announcement period returns is less negative for firms with more transparent qualitative information accompanying their non-GAAP disclosures. Overall, these results suggest that qualitative characteristics of non-GAAP disclosures convey useful information about the quality of non-GAAP earnings metrics.
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jacceco.2021.101402
- Volume
- 72
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 101402
- Language
- en
- Sources
- bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref