The Usefulness of the Most Widely Reported Dutch Financial Statement Numbers to Stock Market Investors

Much of the literature on the usefulness of company financial statement information focuses on the United States and the United Kingdom. But, these two countries are characterized by similar and rigid regulatory and enforcement regime. This study provides direct evidence from the Netherlands – a country with liberal financial reporting environment and different corporate governance regime. It empirically examines the information content of annual and semi-annual earnings announcements and the long-term association between stock returns and some widely reported financial statement variables. The evidence suggests that earnings and dividends disclosures made by Dutch companies are useful to stock market investors and the extent of the usefulness is not that modest as often perceived. However, the Dutch practice of reporting accounting cash flows as a summary performance measure does not have significant incremental usefulness.