We examine whether and how the degree of conditional conservatism in GAAP earnings influences managers' decisions to disclose non-GAAP earnings. Conditional conservatism imposes a downward bias and may negatively affect the information content of GAAP earnings. However, prior research documents that non-GAAP earnings exhibit higher persistence, predictive ability, and information content than GAAP earnings. Consequently, we argue that companies may disclose non-GAAP earnings to circumvent the constraints imposed by conditional conservatism. Our evidence is consistent with the existence of a positive association between the degree of conditional conservatism in GAAP earnings and the decision by firms to disclose non-GAAP earnings. We also document a positive association between the extent of conditional conservatism in GAAP earnings and both the magnitude of non-GAAP exclusions and frequency of non-GAAP disclosures.

我们研究了 GAAP 收益的有条件保守程度是否以及如何影响管理者披露非 GAAP 收益的决定。有条件的保守主义会带来向下的偏见，并可能对 GAAP 收益的信息内容产生负面影响。然而，之前的研究表明，非 GAAP 收益比 GAAP 收益表现出更高的持久性、预测能力和信息内容。因此，我们认为公司可以披露非公认会计原则收益，以规避有条件保守主义施加的限制。我们的证据与 GAAP 收益的条件保守程度与公司披露非 GAAP 收益的决定之间存在正相关关系是一致的。