Seminar (Dept. of Accounting)

Title：The Listenability of Disclosures and Firms’ Information Environment

Speaker：Liwei Weng, Assistant Professor, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Time：10:00-11:30, June 5th, 2024 (Wednesday)

Venue：Room1007, Mingde Business Building

Language：Chinese & English

ABSTRACT:

This paper examines how the listenability of corporate vocal disclosures affects firms’ information environment. Listenability refers to the ease with which humans can comprehend spoken language. We introduce a new measure of listenability by analyzing audio recordings of 56,989 quarterly earnings calls using an advanced, supervised machine learning model trained on 680,000 hours of labeled audio data. We find that enhanced listenability of the presentation portion of earnings conference calls is associated with higher quality manager-analyst interactions during the Q&A session of the call and better information production by analysts after the call. Further analyses reveal that higher listenability is associated with stronger price responsiveness, higher stock price informativeness, faster price formation, and lower bid-ask spread following the call. These results are consistent with clear and effective corporate oral communications facilitating a better information environment.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY:

Liwei Weng is currently an Assistant Professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He will join Northeastern University in the U.S. as an Assistant Professor of Accounting in September 2024. He received his Ph.D. in Accounting from Arizona State University in 2020. His research interests are in financial accounting and auditing. Specifically, he is interested in disclosure, institutional investors, ESG (e.g., labor), debt market (e.g., municipal bonds), analysts, and audit quality. He has taught financial accounting at Arizona State University and data analytics in accounting and accounting Ph.D. seminars at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.