Local peers and corporate reporting behavior*

We find that firms exhibit greater earnings similarity when compared to industry peers in the same city, as the number of local peers increases. This is due to the potential adverse consequences of underperforming relative to local peers. As the number of local peers increases, there is increased local competition, which creates pressure to perform as well as competitors. Firms respond to this pressure by exhibiting earnings similarity to meet market expectations and to take advantage of external financing and growth opportunities. However, we show that this mimicking behavior creates a false similarity and is achieved by firms reporting higher levels of unexpected accruals. This is consistent with the idea that mimicking allows firms to maintain their relative performance with local rivals. These results continue to hold for a sample of firms that move to a location with a higher number of local peers than their initial location. We also find that firms in cities with more peers have a greater likelihood of earnings misstatements. In cross-sectional analyses, the adverse effect of more local peers on earnings quality is stronger for firms with greater market attention, where external financing dependence is higher, and among firms in locations with more growth opportunities. Overall, our evidence points to geographic proximity as a key mechanism in a firm's reporting behavior in that firms mimic to produce a false similarity in earnings that is achieved through accruals management.