Stocken and Verrecchia (2004) suggest that managerial discretion in financial reporting does not necessarily enhance the effectiveness of the financial reporting, even if the manager can use this discretion to provide private information. As it relates to SFAS No. 142, their study suggests that, if the manager’s effort regarding analyzing future cash flows of reporting units involves a certain reporting cost, the manager is more likely to provide an inaccurate goodwill report in order to reduce the cost and may reduce the informativeness of earnings.