Should We Eliminate Quarterly Earnings Reports (Or, At Least, Make Them Optional)? Part 3

What would happen if we made them voluntary?

Prompted by President Trump’s renewed call for the SEC to eliminate mandatory quarterly earnings reports, I’ve been blogging about the case for doing so.

My first point discussed whether quarterly earnings reporting contributes to managerial short term biases.

Should We Eliminate Quarterly Earnings Reports (Or, At Least, Make Them Optional)? Part 1

My second post situated the current debate over quarterly earnings reports in the longstanding debate over mandatory disclosure generally.

Should We Eliminate Quarterly Earnings Reports (Or, At Least, Make Them Optional)? Part 2

I concluded that the arguments that firms would not voluntarily provide disclosures desired by investors are unpersuasive. The principal argument for mandatory disclosure thus falls, IMHO. In closing, I noted that eliminating mandatory quarterly earnings reports would provide an interesting test of whether mandatory disclosure is really necessary. If companies voluntarily continued reporting quarterly earnings, then perhaps we could do away with the whole periodic disclosure regime.