The Asymmetric Timeliness in the Reporting of Good and Bad News of Firms That Trade in the Athens Stock Exchange

Evidence on the asymmetric timeliness in the reporting of good and bad news follows the argument that accountants tend to use discretionary accruals to over-recognise bad news in order to be conservative. The Greek reporting framework, before the adoption of International Accounting Standards, did not allow or offer opportunities for discretionary use of accruals for either recording good and/or bad news. Empirical evidence based on data from firms that trade in the Athens Stock Exchange, for the period 1993- 2002, show that differences in the timeliness in the recognition of good news and bad news exist. However, in contrast to studies that use UK data and US data bad news are not recorded conservatively.