The Incremental information content of financial statement disclosures : the case of LIFO inventory liquidations

Evidence exists indicating that annual earnings numbers convey information to investors that is relevant to the pricing of common stocks for publicly traded companies (e.g., Ball and Brown [1968] and Beaver, Clarke and Wright [1979]). However, comparatively little is known about the information content of the more comprehensive disclosures regarding earnings and earnings components that are provided in the complete text of a firm's financial statements and the accompanying footnotes.' These