The Contractual and Value Relevances of Reported Earnings in an Unregulated Information Market: The Case of Switzerland

Earnings reported by North American firms are conditioned by specific contextual factors that enhance their contractual and value relevances: regulatory oversight by securities commissions, relatively strict accounting and auditing standards, an extensive financial analysis industry and active investors. Such an environment is bound to influence the relevance of accounting information. However, there is still only scarce evidence about the relevance of earnings information in a context where it is unregulated and unconstrained. This study focuses on Switzerland since its information market with respect to earnings is almost free of constraints.