Resumen
In the late 1990s, both Congress and the Securities and Exchange Committee (SEC) sought to encourage more forward-looking disclosures. This led to three specific items of legislation/regulation: the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA), the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998 (SLUSA), and Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg.-FD) (2000). Although the specific purposes of each of these Acts were different, they each were founded on the desire of Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission to improve the flow of information, particularly information about future operations from firms to investors. This paper looks at the effectiveness of these three Acts in increasing the number of forward-looking disclosures provided by companies in three disparate industries. Using a sample of 150 firms in the Consumer Staples, Consumer Durables, and Software industries, it was found that the number of forward-looking disclosures significantly increased following the passages of the SLUSA, and Reg.-FD, but not after the passage of the PSLRA.