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Using a comprehensive sample hand-collected from the original texts of management earnings forecasts from 27 countries, we provide descriptive evidence on the country-level institutional determinants and economic consequences of forecast characteristics. Using principal component factors constructed from a number of country-level institutional variables, we find that forecast disaggregation, frequency, precision, and attribution vary significantly with the business and accounting environment of a country. We further document that better quality management forecasts are generally associated with stronger stock market reactions and higher investment efficiency. Together, our findings suggest that country-level institutions play a vital role in voluntary disclosure characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the credit market's response via changes in credit default swap (CDS) spreads to management earnings forecasts and evaluate the importance of these forecasts relative to earnings news during the periods before and during the recent credit crisis. We document that credit markets react significantly to management forecast news and that the reactions to forecast news are stronger than to actual earnings news. Consistent with the asymmetric payoffs to debt holders, the forecast news is mainly relevant for firms with poor credit rating or announcing bad news. We also show that the relevance of management forecasts to credit markets is particularly strong during periods of high uncertainty, as experienced during the recent credit crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]