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Financial Reporting In 1920: The Case Of Industrial Companies, Jeffrey Archambault, Marie E. Archambault

Accounting Faculty Research

This study uses the 1920 Moody’s Analysis of Industrial Investments to assess the extent of financial reporting by U.S. indus­trial companies. The reporting of an income statement and a balance sheet, as well as the amount of disclosure in both of these statements, is examined empirically to determine which economic factors influ­ence this reporting. The results show that corporate-governance, op­erating, and financing factors all significantly influence the reporting of financial statements and the extent of disclosure within those state­ments. However, the significant factors vary across the two financial statements and the two decisions considered (reporting a particular statement and the …