The impact of regulation fair disclosure on earnings management and analyst forecast bias

Regulation Fair Disclosure (FD) has changed the information transfer process in the US securities market. We examine the impact that regulation FD has had on earnings management and analyst forecast bias. First, we examine the accuracy of financial analysts' earnings forecasts in the post-FD period. We find that analysts have become less accurate in forecasting earnings in the post-FD period and tend to overestimate earnings more relative to the pre-FD period. Second, we examine the level of earnings management after the passage of regulation FD and we find that the level of earnings management did not change after the implementation of regulation FD.