Accounting Standard Changes and Firm’s Financial Reporting Quality: Evidence from ASU 2014-15

In 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) imposed on managers a responsibility to evaluate their companies’ forward-looking prospects for continuing as a going concern on a quarterly basis. Prior to this change, the responsibility of assessing the future of a company was only required annually by the external auditor through auditing standards. If this increase in management responsibility induced managers to implement a process and controls to obtain forward-looking information for disclosure, I would expect this information acquisition process to also improve overall financial reporting quality. I find that financial reporting quality increased for firms after Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2014-15, as evidenced by less restatements. Additionally, while I find the timeliness of information decreased, as evidenced by slower earnings announcements, the decrease is not economically meaningful. Lastly, I find the effect of the standard change on financial reporting quality is greater for non-financially healthy companies who have to perform a more extensive analysis under ASU 2014-15. While the purpose of the accounting standard was to reduce diversity in the timing and content of going concern disclosures, I find evidence of other benefits with little costs that this standard had on firm’s financial reporting.