Financial Statement Placement, Note Disclosure, and Value Relevance: Evidence from ASU 2011-05

ABSTRACT We examine whether note disclosures play an enhanced role in value relevance when financial statement line-item placement becomes more uniformly prominent. We consider ASU 2011-05, which prohibited reporting other comprehensive income (OCI) in the statement of changes in stockholders’ equity. We document that firms changing OCI placement exhibited incrementally positive changes in OCI value relevance, in line with the FASB’s goal of raising OCI prominence. This finding resolves the unexpected findings of early studies, which documented an incremental decrease in OCI value relevance. We then find that this effect is enhanced when OCI-related note disclosures are more specific, numeric, readable, or shorter in length. Collectively, our findings suggest that not only does the prominence of financial statement placement enhance the value relevance of OCI, but also that the salience of accompanying note disclosures further amplifies this effect, indicating the dual importance of clear financial statement presentation and informative footnote disclosure. Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text. JEL Classifications: M41; G14.