The market pricing of negative special items through time: an unintended consequence of regulation change?
Prior research concludes that the implications of negative special items (NSIs) for future earnings are more fully reflected than earnings before NSIs. Our evidence suggests that US regulatory changes resulted in dramatic increases (decreases) in NSI reporting frequency (magnitude). We find that the advantage in pricing NSIs relative to other components of earnings disappears for the average firm post-regulation and for high frequency NSI reporters regardless of time period. Our evidence suggests that regulations governing the financial reporting of NSIs resulted in unintended consequences by impairing the ability of market participants to understand the future earnings implications of these items.