TY - THES A1 - Hähn, Fabian T1 - The Disclosure of Alternative Performance Measures at the German Capital Market N2 - While the regulation of non-standardized, voluntarily disclosed earnings figures – so- called Alternative Performance Measures (APMs) – has been part of the standard setting for over a decade now in the USA, the first extensive legally binding regulations for the EU and Germany have been coming into action in 2016 with the ESMA Guidelines on Alternative Performance Measures. In order to evaluate the impact of the guidelines on the APM reporting behavior of German large stock-listed companies, the annual reports of an adjusted sample of DAX30 and MDAX corporations are examined for the financial years 2014, 2015, and 2016. The empirical results show a slight decrease in the dissemination of APMs when comparing the results for 2015 and 2016. Moreover, the portion of companies reconciling the adjustments made in the calculation of APMs has increased significantly in the post-ESMA Guidelines period while the number of annual reports without any reconciliation has declined simultaneously. Furthermore, the results indicate a significant decrease in the amount of adjustments between normal and modified earnings figures that are published by the same company when comparing the periods prior and subsequent to the issuance of the ESMA Guidelines. A comparison to the developments in the USA following Regulation G shows a much smaller impact of the ESMA Guidelines on the countries’ companies. Nonetheless, this may be due to the differences in structure and competencies between the securities authorities in the US and the EU. However, it can be concluded that by reversing the trend of an increasing use of APMs, the ESMA has achieved some of its goals. KW - Alternative performance measures KW - ESMA guidelines on alternative performance measures KW - Regulation G KW - DAX and MDAX annual reports KW - USA-Germany comparison Y1 - 2018 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-rhein-waal/frontdoor/index/index/docId/211 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hbz:1383-opus4-2114 ER -