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To Be or Not Be …‘Too Late’: The Case of the Belgian Semi‐annual Earnings Announcements
Author(s) -
Annaert Jan,
De Ceuster Marc J.K.,
Polfliet Ruud,
Van Campenhout Geert
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of business finance and accounting
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.282
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1468-5957
pISSN - 0306-686X
DOI - 10.1111/1468-5957.00439
Subject(s) - interim , earnings , accounting , value (mathematics) , lag , economics , actuarial science , term (time) , business , monetary economics , demographic economics , political science , statistics , mathematics , law , computer science , computer network , physics , quantum mechanics
In this study, we demonstrate that the average reporting lag of Belgian interim reports is large but has decreased slightly over the years 1991–1998. Contrary to US findings, we show that the disclosure of interim reports containing bad (good) news is not systematically delayed (speeded up). Interim reports are value relevant since good (bad) news, according to a naïve earnings expectations model, induces positive (negative) abnormal returns. The ‘short term’ timeliness of the information disclosure, however, seems not to matter at all.