재무회계정보 해석에 있어서의 경영자와 투자자 간체계적 편의의 비교분석

This paper examines whether management earnings forecast can mitigate the systematic biasby investors in interpreting the accounting information. Prior research reveals that investors failto fully appreciate accounting information's implications for future profitability. Because of theprominent role of management as information provider, we evaluate the relation of biases inmanagement earnings forecast to similar biases in securities prices. If management earningsforecast is not biased or less biased to interpret the implication of certain accounting informationabout future earnings than investors, we can conclude that management earnings forecast canmitigate market inefficiency by reducing investors bias towards the same accounting information. By using 673 Korean firm/year observations between 2003 and 2010, we first find thatinvestors are overvalue information contents of accrual and sales growth for future earnings. Second, we find that management earnings forecast appears to overvalue accruals and salesgrowth and undervalue unexpected earnings surprise. Third, comparison of systematic biases ininterpreting financial accounting information between management earnings forecast and stockprice indicates that management earnings forecasts are more biased than stock price ininterpreting accrual, sales growth and unexpected earnings surprise. We conclude that management earnings forecast can not be used for mitigating the systematicbias in investor's interpretation of accounting information. If investors incorporate managementearnings forecast in valuing securities prices, investor's systematic bias can be exacerbatedrather than reduce. In sum, our evidence suggests that management in Korea may not be able toenhance the market efficiency by providing investors with their earnings forecast.