Biases in Accounting and Nonaccounting Information: Substitutes or Complements?

This paper studies how bias in nonaccounting and in accounting information should be related. Bias in accounting information is modeled, as in some recent literature, as an alteration in the relative information content of accounting numbers. The optimal bias in one type of information is shown to be a complement of the bias in the other type. This result can be applied in various settings to explain a number of phenomena.

Duke Scholars

Author Xu Jiang Fuqua School of Business