Clarity Begins at Home: Internal Information Asymmetry and External Communication Quality
研究了集团企业内部部门经理与高层之间的信息不对称如何影响管理层预测和财务报表质量，发现信息不对称越严重，外部沟通质量越差。
ABSTRACT This paper investigates the effect of internal information asymmetry (IIA) within conglomerate firms on the quality of management forecasts and financial statements. We develop a novel measure to capture IIA between divisional managers and top corporate managers, computed as the difference in their respective trading profits on their own company's stock (DIFRET). Numerous validation tests indicate that DIFRET indeed captures the information asymmetry between divisional managers and top managers. In our primary tests, we find that DIFRET is associated negatively with the accuracy, bias, specificity, and frequency of management forecasts. Furthermore, the likelihood of error-driven accounting restatements increases with DIFRET. Our results, thus, suggest that external communication quality suffers when the information asymmetry between divisional managers and top managers is more severe.