Labor Mobility, Managerial Evaluation Risk, and Corporate Performance Disclosures

Abstract

This study documents that managers of firms with greater labor mobility (LM) face higher personal evaluation risk (i.e., higher likelihood of performance-driven forced turnover), especially among firms with more transparent performance disclosures. Moreover, managers of high-LM firms tend to adopt lower-quality performance disclosures (i.e., lower financial statement readability, earnings quality, and accounting conservatism) to mitigate their personal evaluation risk. The effect of LM on performance disclosure quality is stronger for firms whose managers are more concerned about personal evaluation risk, but is weaker for firms headquartered in states that restrain mobility. Finally, low-quality disclosures by high-LM firms attract a valuation discount.