Disclosure Quality and Information Content of Earnings

Disclosure quality points to the fluency of studying and interpretation of financial reporting. When the amount of disclosure information, timeliness and the accuracy of the disclosure information create the potential to distribute information, and stockholders believe the true value of the stocks after receiving information, disclosure information indicates more quality. Therefore, disclosure quality affects the value of stocks. So it is expected that an increase in disclosure quality results in an increase of earning data content and the reported earning is more effective on the behavior of the stockholders. Disclosure quality is one of the important tools to evaluate the reported information. If the information is presented in a timely manner and has enough reliability, disclosure quality improves. If disclosure quality improves, the presented information will be more valuable and the inside information and information asymmetry will decrease. Complete disclosure with transparency of financial reporting can make a certain situation improve the confidence of investors. Disclosure has a positive effect on the performance of stockholders and can save their benefits. Improving confidence of investors will decrease the expected return and will increase the value of the company. In order to investigate the relation between disclosure quality and information content of earnings, data from 76 firms which are listed in Tehran Stock Exchange were studied. The hypothesis was tested based on cross section and panel data. The research results based on the panel data confirm a positive relation between disclosure quality and informativeness of accounting earnings.