Should Firms Disclose Everything to Everybody? A Discussion of 'Open Versus Closed Conference Calls: The Determinants and Effects of Broadening Access to Disclosure'

Abstract

Bushee, Matsumoto, and Miller (2002) is a timely study in an area Ð corporate disclosure policy Ð that is increasingly important to regulators, corporate managers, and academics. The authors report several results that will be of interest to these groups. I describe the corporate disclosure issues that make the authors' research questions of broader relevance than their specific topic might suggest. I then provide comments on theoretical and empirical aspects of the study. Overall, the study is likely to be useful in helping us understand some of the forces at work as corporate disclosure becomes more rapid, more comprehensive, and more open.

Keywords: conference calls, disclosure, selective disclosure

JEL Classification: G14, G29, M41, M45