This set of two essays addresses questions about the impact of SFAS No. 131, which provides the current GAAP for segment reporting. Many firms enhanced their segment reports in compliance with SFAS No. 131, while some did not. The first essay documents the impact of the new standard on the market for stocks of firms that began reporting disclosure for multiple segments (Change firms) compared to that of firms that did not report multiple business segments (Control firms). Share volume and price increased abruptly following release of the new disclosure while volatility and the adverse selection component of the bid-ask spread decreased. These changes were significant for subsets of Change firms identified as being more likely to face information asymmetry problems (i.e., low capitalization and high bid-ask spread firms). The second essay compares firms segment disclosures from pre- to post-implementation of the standard. Newly-reported segments tend to be smaller than previously-disclosed segments, and they are often combined with larger segments in a related industry prior to implementation of the standard. Firms providing relatively aggregated segment reports tend to be large, to have international operations, and complex operating structures compared to firms providing more detailed disclosures in the pre-SFAS No. 131 period.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-06302009-090537 |
| Date | 30 September 2009 |
| Creators | Hardin, Lorna Eileen |
| Contributors | Karen Shastri, Jacob G. Birnberg, Luis Vargas, Kuldeep Shastri, Steven Rock |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-06302009-090537/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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