Managerial Ability and Financial Statement Comparability

This study examines the relationship between managerial ability and financial statement comparability. We find that accounting comparability is associated with managerial ability. Specifically, firm-pairs by industry-year with similar managerial ability are associated with more comparable financial statements. We also find that firm-pairs with similarly low-level ability managers are associated with more comparable earnings than firm-pairs with similarly high-level ability managers. Overall, the results suggest that managers can impact the comparability of earnings and that less able managers are associated with more comparable financial statements