Earnings management and annual report readability
研究了年报可读性如何随盈余管理变化，发现为超越上年盈余而管理盈余的公司，其管理层讨论与分析部分更复杂，表明模糊化是导致披露复杂的原因之一。
We explore how the readability of annual reports varies with earnings management. Using the Fog Index to measure readability (Li, 2008), and focusing on the management discussion and analysis section of the annual report (MD&A), we predict and find that firms most likely to have managed earnings to beat the prior year's earnings have MD&As that are more complex. This disruption of the overall pattern of readability increasing with the level of earnings found in Li (2008) challenges the ontological explanation that good news is inherently easier to communicate, and shows that obfuscation contributes to making disclosures more complex.