IPO Failure Risk

We explore the factors associated with historical IPO failures by developing an IPO failure prediction model that includes accounting information as well as proxies for the role of information intermediaries and other IPO deal–related characteristics. We document statistically significant differences in failure models applicable to nontech versus high tech IPOs, and these structural differences are largely driven by accounting‐based proxies for firms' investments in intangible assets, operating performance, and financial leverage. We also develop parsimonious, predominantly accounting‐based, strictly out‐of‐sample (i.e., no hindsight) IPO failure forecasting models for each of the two sectors. We find that our forecasts are negatively associated with one‐year post‐IPO abnormal returns. A pseudo‐hedge strategy of going short (long) in high (low) failure risk portfolios yields returns of economically significant magnitudes over the one‐year horizon, and is robust to alternative returns methodologies. Further results suggest that IPO long‐run returns anomalies may persist, but they take different forms for high‐tech and nontech IPOs.     

REVENUE, POPULATION, AND COMPETITIVE BALANCE IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

This article examines the impact of hometown market size on competitive balance in Major League Baseball. We use a four-equation simultaneous model of win percent, team payroll, team total revenue, and team local revenue in order to avoid simultaneity bias in the estimates. Using two-stage least squares, our results show that consolidated metropolitan statistical area population does have a statistically significant positive impact on local revenue. This leads to increased payroll, which has a significantly positive, but small, impact on win percent. Specifically, the estimated impact of an additional one million in population ranges from 0.233 to 1.126 additional wins per season. ( JEL L38)     

The Impact of Information Processing Costs on Firm Disclosure Choice: Evidence from the XBRL Mandate

This paper examines the effect of market participants’ information processing costs on firms’ disclosure choice. Using the recent eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) regulation, I find that firms increase their quantitative footnote disclosures upon implementation of XBRL detailed tagging requirements designed to reduce information users’ processing costs. These results hold in a difference‐in‐difference design using matched nonadopting firms as controls, as well as two additional identification strategies. Examination of the disclosure increase by footnote type suggests that both regulatory and nonregulatory market participants play a role in monitoring firm disclosures. Overall, these findings suggest that the processing costs of market participants can be significant enough to impact firms’ disclosure decisions.     

The Impetus for (and Limited Power of) Business Self‐Regulation: The Example of Advergames

When people complain, government agencies often respond. When regulations are threatened, businesses often offer reassurances that the problems can be handled with a self‐regulation code. However, past analyses of the power of self‐regulation find that while companies' voluntary adherence to self‐defined guidelines may effect some change in the activities of some companies, the inherent limitations of self‐regulation in the United States may restrict its ability to actually halt or control the undesired practices of others. The recent response by major food manufacturers and marketers to criticism of online games is an example of this mix.     

The Provision of Trans Fat Information and Its Interaction with Consumer Knowledge

The first significant change to the Nutrition Facts panel since its inception is the addition of trans fat information. This research examines whether this modification may have a significant effect on consumers’ disease risk perceptions and on the perceived importance of trans fat information. The results of an experiment that varied exposure to induced trans fat knowledge, trans fat levels, and Nutrition Facts Panel formats indicate that without consumer education efforts that enhance consumers’ knowledge and understanding of trans fat, effects of the new labeling regulations on consumers may be limited.     

Home economics programmes in Oyo state secondary schools: a survey

The purpose of this study was to identify the curricula emphases in home economics in Oyo state secondary schools and to describe selected aspects of teaching and the teacher. Sixty-two home economics teachers in Oyo state responded to a mailed survey indicating the degree of emphasis given to 50 topics in five subject-matter areas of home economics: (i) clothing and textiles, (ii) foods and nutrition, (iii) home management and family economics, (iv) housing, and (v) human development and the family. The most taught subject-matter areas (in order) are foods and nutrition, home management and family economics and clothing and textiles while human development and the family and housing were the least taught subject-matter areas. A similar response was given for teacher's reported level of competence and subject-matter preference. Scores on the topics within each subject-matter area, however, indicated that all the five subject-matter areas were moderately emphasized in the curriculum. These three philosophical views of home economics exist concurrently in Oyo state secondary schools: (i) home economics as home-making education, (ii) home economics as household management, and (iii) home economics as cooking and sewing. Suggestions for improving and strengthening the current home economics programmes are discussed. This research was conducted during 1987–1988 in the Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
James C. McCann, Maize and Grace: Africa's Encounter with a New World Crop 1500–2000 .
T. Lang and M. Heasman, Food Wars: The Global Battle for Mouths, Minds and Markets .
Richard A. Walker, The Conquest of Bread: 150 Years of Agribusiness in California .
Paul Nugent, Africa Since Independence: A Comparative History .     

Accounting for Expenditure on Intangibles

In search of a unifying measurement feature on which to base a more systematic and potentially comprehensive analysis of intangibles, this paper first analyses the economic and accounting properties of intangibles, and second, empirically evaluates managerial practices for measuring and analysing expenditure on intangibles. We present evidence from a survey of 614 large Australian firms that suggests gaps in the extent with which firms plan, monitor, record, analyse, and report on intangibles. Third, we evaluate the implications of our analysis and survey for accounting practice. Our evidence suggests GAAP has a role to provide guidance that helps firms identify and classify their expenditure on intangibles in ways that elucidate the strategic implications of the different types of intangibles for future output. A secondary step for accountants, after identifying and classifying the expenditure on intangibles, is to apply a capitalization test to distinguish expenses from assets. The current asymmetric treatment of expenditure on purchased versus internally generated intangibles is not supportable on economic grounds. However, economists identify weak property rights as a major cause of uncertainty associated with the outcomes from expenditure on intangibles, suggesting verifiable property rights is a unifying measurement feature on which to base a capitalization test for intangible assets.