While conditional conservatism is useful to investors and creditors for various reasons, it potentially reduces the usefulness of GAAP earnings for valuation by investors. Consistent with this conjecture, we find evidence suggesting that conditional conservatism reduces GAAP earnings...

We investigate changes in financial reporting conservatism arising from disclosure-related shareholder lawsuits filed between 1996 and 2016. We find that sued firms respond to 10b-5 litigation with increased accounting conservatism. Consistent with a spillover effect, we also find that non-sued...