本篇論文主要探討公司產業多角化對資訊不對稱的影響。本研究以分析師預測值和盈餘宣告後市場異常報酬為衡量資訊不對稱之代理變數來檢驗公司多角化與資訊不對稱之間的關係。另外，本篇論文也依照法律體系來檢驗公司多角化所造成的資訊不對稱程度在不同法律體系的國家間是否有異同。資料來源方面，我們採用2000至2006年間符合同時存在於I/B/E/S與Worldscope資料庫的全球樣本。實證結果顯示全球公司多角化的程度越高，則分析師的盈餘預測誤差以及分歧越高，但公司多角化的程度越高，盈餘宣告後異常報酬越低。就美國公司而言，多角化的程度越高，分析師的盈餘預測誤差和分歧，以及盈餘宣告後異常報酬越低。而日本公司，多角化的程度越高，分析師的盈餘預測誤差越高，但分析師的盈餘預測分歧以及盈餘宣告後異常報酬越低。另外，實證結果顯示法系法律體系公司進行多角化後會比非法系法律體系公司有更高的分析師盈餘預測分歧，但卻有較低的分析師盈餘預測誤差以及盈餘宣告後異常報酬。

The objective of this paper is to examine the effect of industrial diversification on asymmetric information. In this study, analysts’ earning forecast error, forecast dispersion among analysts, and the market reactions after the earning announcement date are proxies to measure asymmetric information, and the Entropy index is the proxy to measure the level of industrial diversification. This paper tests the relation between diversification and the asymmetric problem. We obtain data from I/B/E/S and Worldscope datasets during the period from 2000 to 2006. The empirical evidence shows that the higher level of diversification accompany larger analysts’ forecast error and dispersion, but smaller market reaction after earning announcement. For the U.S. firms, the higher level of diversification accompany lower analysts’ forecast error, lower analysts’ forecast dispersion, and lower market reaction after earning announcement. For the Japanese firms, the higher level of diversification accompanies higher analysts’ forecast error but smaller dispersion among analysts and smaller market reaction after earning announcement. In addition, the French legal system firms implement diversification would have higher analysts forecast dispersion but lower analysts’ forecast error and smaller market reaction after earning announcement than the non-French legal system firms.

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