Abstract ABSTRACT: The primary purpose of the study is to provide evidence on the characteristics of firms which did and did not disclose management's annual earnings forecasts in the Well Street Journal. The study finds that earnings variability is greater for non-disclosing firms while firm size is larger for disclosing firms. Systematic market risk was not significantly different between the two groups of firms. To the extent that earnings variability and firm size influence forecast accuracy and information content, the results reported in this study suggest that the accuracy and information content of voluntarily disclosed forecasts may not be representative of the accuracy and information content of the forecasts of currently nondisclosing firms if forecasts for these firms become required.
Clifford T. Cox (Tue,) studied this question.