Recent changes in technology and the media are causing significant changes in how capital markets assimilate and respond to information. We identify important themes in the disclosure literature and use this as a framework to discuss the conference papers that appear in this volume. These papers...

We investigate managers' decisions to supplement their firms' management earnings forecasts. We classify these supplementary disclosures as qualitative "soft talk" disclosures or verifiable forward-looking statements. We find that managers provide soft talk disclosures with similar frequency for...

We investigate firms that stop providing earnings guidance (stoppers) either by publicly announcing their decision (announcers) or doing so quietly (quiet stoppers). Relative to firms that continue guiding, stoppers have poorer prior performance, more uncertain operating environments, and fewer...

The use of more or less optimistic language in corporate disclosures has been the subject of increased interest in the academic literature. We add to this stream of research by examining the manager-specific component in the tone of earnings-announcement related conference calls. We find that...

The pressure to meet/beat analysts' expectations is often blamed for the recent onslaught of accounting scandals. We investigate changes in the meeting/beating phenomenon post-scandals and find that the stock market premium to meeting or just beating analyst estimates has disappeared while the...

Using a sample of over 10,000 earnings-related conference call transcripts, we examine the determinants of within-firm variation in the length of managers' presentation and analyst discussion periods during earnings-related conference calls. We find that managers' presentations are longer when...

Earnings press releases provide managers a forum to present their firm's quarterly financial information and perhaps influence perceptions of the firm's stakeholders. We explore the use of managerial emphasis as a disclosure tool and contribute to the debate over pro forma earnings. We examine...