Does recognition versus disclosure matter? Evidence from pension accounting

An important area of research and issue of interest for standard setters is whether information disclosure in the footnotes is a substitute for recognition in the financial statements. SFAS 158, issued in 2006, requires the recognition of pension liabilities that were only disclosed in the footnotes under SFAS 87, for the fiscal year ending after Dec. 15, 2006. I empirically examine whether the recognition of the previously disclosed off-balance-sheet pension liabilities affects investors' valuation and firms' contracting costs. I also incorporate levels of investor sophistication in my analyses. Using a sample of firms with pension liabilities that were disclosed under SFAS 87 and subsequently recognized under SFAS 158 from 1999 to 2007, I find that, without considering investor sophistication, SFAS 158 generally does not increase the value relevance of the previously disclosed off-balance-sheet pension liabilities. However, after taking into account investor sophistication, I show that the disclosed off-balance-sheet pension liabilities are more value relevant for firms with a higher level of investor sophistication in the pre-158 period; more importantly, I find that SFAS 158 significantly increases the value relevance of the previously disclosed off-balance-sheet pension liabilities for firms with a low proportion of sophisticated investors, and the increase in the value relevance is less pronounced for firms with a higher proportion of sophisticated investors. Consistent with the contracting theory, I find that requiring the recognition of previously only-disclosed liabilities affects the debt contracting cost and the cost of capital. However, only sophisticated investors appear to understand the effect of SFAS 158 on the debt contracting cost and the stock price. Overall, the results support that recognition affects investors' valuation and firms' contracting costs. The results also highlight the role of the level of investor sophistication in the value relevance of disclosed vs. recognized financial information.