Disclosure tone management and labor unions
研究发现，工会力量越强，管理层在盈余公告中越倾向于使用更不乐观的语调，尤其是在业绩好时，以向工会传递公司财务表现不佳的印象，且这种语调通缩在劳资谈判期间更明显。
Abstract By analyzing the influence of labor unions on the narrative content of corporate disclosures, we provide empirical evidence that managers deflate the tone of earnings press releases in order to convey to unions a less optimistic image of firm financial performance. We find that the tone of the qualitative information in earnings press releases is significantly less optimistic as the degree of unionization increases, and particularly when financial performance is strong. The results of quasi‐natural experiments suggest that labor unions causally affect the use of tone deflation, and the deflation is stronger during labor negotiations. Our findings also indicate that labor unions lead to a significant weakening of the signaling value of the tone of earnings press releases in predicting future performance.