scholarly journals Earnings Comparability and Firm-Specific Stock Price Crash Risk

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 174
Author(s):  
Ruixue Du ◽  
Shuo Li ◽  
Ling Tuo ◽  
Yu (Tony) Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Stock Price ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Income Smoothing ◽  
Crash Risk ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Market Outcomes ◽  
Public Firms ◽  
Corporate Managers ◽  
Probability Of Informed Trading

This study examines the association between earnings comparability and firm-specific stock price crash risk. Using a large sample of 33,696 firm-year observations from the U.S. public firms, we find a positive association between comparability and future stock price crash risk. This finding is consistent with the notion that corporate managers do not have much incentive to release firm-specific information (especially bad news), as long as their firms’ financial statements are comparable to those of the industry peers. We further show that the positive association between earnings comparability and future crash risk is attenuated for firms with strong external monitoring (i.e., high analyst coverage, high institutional ownership, and high audit quality) and firms with low information asymmetry (i.e., low probability of informed trading). Our results are robust to (1) controlling for other important earnings attributes (e.g., conditional conservatism and income smoothing) that are associated with crash risk, (2) conducting change analyses, and (3) using alternative measures of earnings comparability. Our findings have an important implication that earnings comparability does not always result in favorable capital market outcomes.

scholarly journals Diversification Strategy and Stock Price Crash Risk：Evidence from China

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 94
Author(s):  
Jun Qi ◽  
Wenying Diao
Keyword(s):  
Stock Price ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Crash Risk ◽  
Corporate Diversification ◽  
Diversification Strategy ◽  
Significant Positive Association ◽  
Analyst Coverage ◽  
Listed Firms ◽  
The Impact

This study examines the impact of the corporate diversification strategy on the stock price crash risk. Using a large sample of Chinese A-share listed companies for the period 2003-2017, we find the stock price crash risk significantly increases when the operation strategy of a firm changes from a specialized operation to a diversified operation or the degree of diversified operations deepens. We also find that our results are stronger for non-state-owned listed firms, but not significant for state-owned firms. Furthermore, we find that the significant positive association between diversification and crash risk is more pronounced for firms with low external audit quality and low analyst coverage. Our study suggests that the diversification of operating strategy matter in determine stock price crash risk.

Capital Market Consequences of Audit Office Size: Evidence from Stock Price Crash Risk

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Jeffrey L. Callen ◽  
Xiaohua Fang ◽  
Baohua Xin ◽  
Wenjun Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Capital Market ◽  
Stock Price ◽  
Bad News ◽  
Crash Risk ◽  
Public Firms ◽  
Big 4 ◽  
Empirical Tests ◽  
Office Size ◽  
Market Consequences ◽  
Robust Evidence

SUMMARY This study examines the association between the office size of engagement auditors and their clients' future stock price crash risk, a consequence of managerial bad news hoarding. Using a sample of U.S. public firms with Big 4 auditors, we find robust evidence that local audit office size is significantly and negatively related to future stock price crash risk. The evidence is consistent with the view that large audit offices effectively detect and deter bad news hoarding activities in comparison with their smaller counterparts. We further explore two possible explanations for these findings, the Auditor Incentive Channel and the Auditor Competency Channel. Our empirical tests offer support for both channels. JEL Classifications: G12; G34; M49.

Related-Party Transactions and Stock Price Crash Risk: Evidence from China

2021 ◽  
pp. 2150020
Author(s):  
Ahsan Habib ◽  
Haiyan Jiang ◽  
Donghua Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Stock Price ◽  
Reporting Quality ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Financial Reporting Quality ◽  
Crash Risk ◽  
Future Price ◽  
Accounting Data ◽  
Related Party Transactions ◽  
Representational Faithfulness

This paper investigates the association between related-party transactions (RPTs) and stock price crash risk in China. Our investigation is motivated by the controversy in the RPT literature over whether RPTs are value enhancing or opportunistic. Through the lens of stock price crash risk, we reveal that RPTs may violate the arm’s-length assumption of regular market-based transactions, impairing the representational faithfulness and verifiability of accounting data and, consequently, increasing the risk of future price crash. Importantly, we find that this detrimental economic consequence of RPTs is driven by abnormal RPTs that are opportunistic in nature. Our analyses also extend to operating RPTs, related-party loans, and two types of opportunistic RPTs: tunneling and propping. The positive association between RPTs and stock price crash risk is not mediated by financial reporting quality, suggesting that the risk factors associated with RPTs are operational. Our main results remain robust to a series of tests done to address the potential endogeneity between RPTs and stock price crash risk.

Do Firms Redact Information from Material Contracts to Conceal Bad News?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dichu Bao ◽  
Yongtae Kim ◽  
Lixin (Nancy) Su
Keyword(s):  
Stock Price ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Securities And Exchange Commission ◽  
Bad News ◽  
Crash Risk ◽  
Public Disclosure ◽  
Litigation Risk ◽  
External Monitoring ◽  
Future Performance ◽  
Equity Incentives

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) allows firms to redact information from material contracts by submitting confidential treatment requests, if redacted information is not material and would cause competitive harm upon public disclosure. This study examines whether managers use confidential treatment requests to conceal bad news. We show that confidential treatment requests are positively associated with residual short interest, a proxy for managers’ private negative information. This positive association is more pronounced for firms with lower litigation risk, higher executive equity incentives, and lower external monitoring. Confidential treatment requests filed by firms with higher residual short interests are associated with higher stock price crash risk and poorer future performance. Collectively, our results suggest that managers redact information from material contracts to conceal bad news.

scholarly journals The Information Role of Earnings Conference Call Tone: Evidence from Stock Price Crash Risk

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xi Fu ◽  
Xiaoxi Wu ◽  
Zhifang Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Stock Price ◽  
Predictive Power ◽  
Crash Risk ◽  
Conference Calls ◽  
Conference Call ◽  
Public Firms ◽  
Equity Incentives ◽  
Disclosure Tone

Abstract This paper investigates whether and how the disclosure tone of earnings conference calls predicts future stock price crash risk. Using US public firms’ conference call transcripts from 2010 to 2015, we find that firms with less optimistic tone of year-end conference calls experience higher stock price crash risk in the following year. Additional analyses reveal that the predictive power of tone is more pronounced among firms with better information environment and lower managerial equity incentives, suggesting that extrinsic motivations for truthful disclosure partially explain the predictive power of conference call tone. Our results shed light on the long-term information role of conference call tone by exploring the setting of extreme future downside risk, when managers have conflicting incentives either to unethically manipulate disclosure tone to hide bad news or to engage in ethical and truthful communication.

Institutional Investors’ Monitoring and Stock Price Crash Risk: Evidence from Politically Connected Firms

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (04) ◽  
pp. 1850028 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chwee Ming Tee ◽  
Angelina Seow Voon Yee ◽  
Aik Lee Chong
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Investors ◽  
Stock Price ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Institutional Ownership ◽  
Political Connections ◽  
Crash Risk ◽  
Different Types

Motivated by recent studies on political connections and stock price crash risk, this study investigates whether there is an association between politically connected (POLCON) firms and stock price crash risk. Further, we examine whether institutional investors’ ownership can moderate this association. Using a dataset of Malaysian firms for the period 2002–2012, we show that POLCON firms are associated with higher risk of stock price crashes. However, the positive association between POLCON and stock crashes is attenuated by higher institutional ownership, implying effective monitoring. Finally, we find that only local institutional investors can significantly mitigate the positive association between POLCON firms and stock price crash risk. This suggests that different types of institutional investors can produce different monitoring outcomes in POLCON firms.

Tournament Incentives and Stock Price Crash Risk

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 101-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ning Jia
Keyword(s):  
Stock Price ◽  
Crash Risk ◽  
Senior Executives ◽  
Public Firms ◽  
Scheme Design ◽  
External Monitoring ◽  
Paper Advance ◽  
Corporate Governance Quality ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Robust Evidence

SYNOPSIS Using a large sample of U.S. public firms, I provide robust evidence that promotion-based tournament incentives, which are measured as the pay gaps between the CEO and other senior executives, are significantly and positively related to the firm's future stock price crash risk. The documented relationship is robust to controlling for corporate governance quality, and is attenuated for firms with a recent CEO turnover and for firms with more effective external monitoring. In contrast, the relationship is accentuated for firms that experience consecutive underperformance and for firms with greater opacity. Findings of this paper advance our understanding of the benefits and downsides of promotion incentives for non-CEO executives, and highlight the implications of inter-executive incentive scheme design for firm-specific stock price crash risk. JEL Classifications: G34; G12; G30.

The Effect of Trade Secrets Law on Stock Price Synchronicity: Evidence from the Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine

2020 ◽  
pp. 0000-0000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongtae Kim ◽  
Lixin (Nancy) Su ◽  
Zheng Wang ◽  
Haibin Wu
Keyword(s):  
Stock Prices ◽  
Stock Price ◽  
State Courts ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Cost Of Equity ◽  
Stock Price Synchronicity ◽  
Corporate Managers ◽  
Proprietary Information ◽  
Proprietary Cost ◽  
Trade Secret Protection

We exploit the staggered recognition of the Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine (IDD) by US state courts to examine the effect of trade-secret protection on the amount of firm-specific information incorporated in stock prices, as reflected in stock price synchronicity. We find that after certain state courts recognize the IDD, firms headquartered in those states exhibit a significant increase in stock price synchronicity relative to firms in other states. We also find a significant decrease in the disclosure of proprietary information in the firms' 10-K reports. These results suggest that IDD recognition increases the proprietary cost of disclosure, and, in response, corporate managers withhold more information. In addition, we find that the increase in stock price synchronicity and the decrease in the disclosure of proprietary information lead to increases in the firm's market share, cost of equity, and market-to-book ratio, suggesting that managers sacrifice capital market benefits for product market gains.

scholarly journals Earnings Smoothing and Bankruptcy Risk in Liquidating Private Firms

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 162
Author(s):  
Nor Afifah Shabani ◽  
Saudah Sofian
Keyword(s):  
Interest Rates ◽  
Stock Price ◽  
Crash Risk ◽  
Private Firms ◽  
Loan Default ◽  
Bankruptcy Risk ◽  
Public Firms ◽  
Earnings Smoothing ◽  
Distressed Firms ◽  
Default Risks

Smooth earnings are preferred by managers and creditors because they represent a stable business operations as well as low loan default risks and thus creditors reward firms which have smooth earnings with better loan covenant terms and lower interest rates. Nonetheless, recent literature shows that earnings smoothing in public firms is associated with stock price crash risk. Using Altman Z” score to measure firm’s specific bankruptcy risk, this study examines the association between accrual earnings smoothing and bankruptcy risk in liquidating private firms in UK and finds that earnings smoothing significantly negatively affects those firms' bankruptcy risk. The finding implies that financially distressed firms engage with less earnings smoothing, possibly because they do not have the opportunity to engage in accrual earnings smoothing anymore. Nonetheless, further examination shows that these firms engage less with earnings smoothing because they are being monitored by external creditors, indicated by significantly high leverage during the last period before they are being liquidated.

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