Concerns have been raised by regulators and investors about the increasingly complex financial reports that are becoming incomprehensible to ordinary investors. The readability literature attributes unreadable financial reports to the reporting firms' operational complexity and/or the desire to obfuscate poor performance. At the same time, upper echelons theory from the management literature posits that top managers' characteristics will impact the way the firm is managed, while business and social science research posits that individuals become more capable and ethical as they grow older. We expect older CEOs and executives to be more capable of explaining operating complexities and staying ethical in reporting, thus leading to more readable financial reports. Our results support this view.

中文翻译：

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执行年龄和财务报告的可读性

监管机构和投资者对日益复杂的财务报告提出了担忧，而普通投资者却无法理解这些财务报告。可读性文献将不可读的财务报告归因于报告公司的运营复杂性和/或混淆表现不佳的愿望。同时，来自管理文献的高层理论认为，高级管理人员的特征将影响公司的管理方式，而商业和社会科学研究则认为，随着年龄的增长，个人变得越来越有能力和道德。我们希望年长的CEO和高管更有能力解释运营复杂性并在报告中保持道德规范，从而使财务报告更具可读性。我们的结果支持这一观点。