The Association between Reporting Complexity in the Statement of Cash Flows and the Decision Usefulness of Cash Flow Information
研究发现2010-2024年美国上市公司现金流量表的报告复杂性（项目明细复杂性和汇总复杂性）与分析师和投资者对现金流信息的决策有用性下降相关，且这种影响在现金流量的三个部分和金融与非金融企业中均存在。
SYNOPSIS For a broad sample of SEC registrants during 2010–2024, we find that reporting complexity linked to possibly inefficient aggregation and disaggregation in the Statement of Cash Flows (SCF) is associated with decreased decision usefulness of SCF information. We measure SCF reporting complexity as the number of monetary XBRL tags on the face of the SCF (Itemization Complexity) and the percent of SCF lines whose wording indicates the amount results from combining items (Aggregation Complexity). Controlling for business complexity and balance sheet and income statement reporting complexity, we find that both SCF reporting complexity measures are generally linked to diminished decision usefulness for analysts (using forecast errors and dispersion), and for investors (using valuation relevance of cash flows). These results vary across the three SCF sections and apply to both financial and nonfinancial firms. Our results provide new evidence about complexity in the presentation of cash flow information. Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text. JEL Classifications: M41; M48; G15.