Abstract
We draw on the investor protection literature to identify structural factors in the financial
reporting environment that are likely to explain cross-country differences in the information content
of annual earnings announcements. Using data from over 50,000 annual earnings announcements in
26 countries, we find that annual earnings announcements are
more
informative in countries with
higher quality earnings or better enforced insider trading laws, and that annual earnings
announcements are
less
informative in countries with more frequent interim financial reporting.
We also find that, on average, earnings announcements are more informative in countries with strong
investor protection institutions.
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2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved