Influência da restrição financeira e das crises na legibilidade e no humor das notas explicativas
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Data
2025-03-18
Autores
Muniz, Jordana Pereira
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Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo
Resumo
This study analyzes the influence of financial constraints and periods of crisis on the readability and tone of the words used in the explanatory notes of Brazilian companies listed on the B3 stock exchange. Grounded in Disclosure Theory, the research examines how external (economic crises) and internal (financial constraints) factors affect the quality of financial information. A quantitative analysis was conducted using 8,363 observations from 2014 to 2023, covering the 2014 economic crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and the Americanas crisis in 2023. In the main analysis, readability was measured using the Flesch Reading Ease, while the tone of the words was identified through a sentiment dictionary adapted by Cavalheiro et al. (2021). Financial constraints were captured using the KZ index (Kaplan & Zingales, 1997), and the effects were evaluated through panel data regressions. The results indicate that crisis periods significantly reduced readability, making reports more complex, particularly in the Communication and Consumer Cyclical sectors. Additionally, financially constrained firms exhibited lower readability and a more pessimistic tone, suggesting greater caution in financial reporting. However, the interaction between crisis and financial constraints did not impact readability but influenced the tone, making it more optimistic, possibly as a strategy to manage market perceptions. Additional analysis, using Wilcoxon and Kruskal-Wallis tests, confirmed that crises and financial constraints independently affect readability, while their interaction influences the tone of the disclosures. The robustness of these findings was validated by alternative readability metrics, such as Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level and Gunning Fog Index, and by reassessing financial constraints using the SA index (Hadlock & Pierce, 2010). The findings emphasize that macroeconomic crises and financial constraints affect corporate transparency, reinforcing the need for stricter regulations to ensure the clarity of financial reports, particularly during crises. These results contribute to the literature on financial disclosure quality, demonstrating that economic conditions and financial constraints influence corporate transparency. From a practical perspective, the findings suggest that investors and analysts should consider readability and tone in explanatory notes as potential indicators of financial constraints and perception management strategies
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Legibilidade , Humor das palavras , Restrição financeira , Crise , Notas explicativas , Readability , Tone of words , Financial constraints , Crisis , Notes to the financial statements