企业风险与审计师选择

信号传递理论认为,IPO市场中审计师选择可以作为信号机制,降低发行企业和投资者之间的信息不对称程度.本文以股权分置改革后我国证券发行制度向市场化过渡为背景,考察我国审计师声誉和IPO企业特征之间的关系.研究结果表明,在公司规模、资产负债率、资产净利率、投资银行声誉、公司成立时间这五个反映公司风险的变量中,公司规模、投资银行声誉、公司成立时间与是否选择大事务所进行审计有显著正相关关系,且大规模事务所审计的IPO企业的首日回报显著要低,这意味着大规模事务所的高声誉得到了市场的认可,审计师的信号传递功能在我国初步有效.     

Determinants of intellectual capital disclosure in prospectuses of initial public offerings

Intellectual capital is recognised as the new economic era’s pivotal factor underlying value creation. Deficient and inconsistent intellectual capital reporting is escalating information asymmetry between informed and uninformed investors. This provides fertile ground for informed investors to extract higher abnormal returns and higher wealth transfers from uninformed investors, particularly during a firm’s initial public offering (IPO). This study investigates the association between intellectual capital disclosure levels in prospectuses of 444 IPOs listing on the Singapore Stock Exchange between 1997 and 2006, and three potential explanatory determinants: (1) ownership retention; (2) proprietary costs; and (3) corporate governance structure. Statistical analysis supports our conjecture of a positive association between intellectual capital disclosure and ownership retention. We also find, consistent with expectations, a negative influence of proprietary costs on the positive intellectual capital disclosure – ownership retention association. However, contrary to predictions, we do not find an IPO’s corporate governance structure significantly influences the negative interaction of proprietary costs on the ownership retention – proprietary cost association. Our findings have implications for various parties such as regulators who may impose unnecessary costs on issuers if they introduce mandatory disclosures whilst lacking an understanding of the factors influencing intellectual capital disclosures.     

Litigation risk,underpricing, and money-losing IPOs

We examine the impact of firms' pre-IPO earnings on the relationship between litigation risk and IPO underpricing. We confirm the insurance effect of the lawsuit avoidance hypothesis; however, we find that the use of underpricing to reduce litigation risk is mainly associated with firms with negative earnings at the time of going public. Our results are robust to the timelines over which sample firms were sued, alternative underpricing measures, the addition of various control variables to our baseline regression models, and different proxies to categorize IPO firms. We also investigate the relationship between litigation risk, pre-IPO earnings, and underwriter gross spreads. The results indicate that, when dealing with firms facing a high risk of litigation, underwriters charge significantly higher spreads to negative-earnings issuers than profitable IPO firms.     

IPO underpricing,signaling, and property returns

This paper investigates whether IPO signals reveal proprietary information about the prospects of an issuing firm’s underlying industry. By analyzing a sample of European property company (EPC) IPOs from 1997 to 2007, we take advantage of a heterogeneous set of industry performance measures, i.e., yields and total returns of direct property investments in various European property markets that can be clearly assigned to each individual IPO. The results reveal that the main signal of interest, underpricing, is in fact positively related to average property yields for a 12-month post-IPO period; a result that supports our assumption. Other signals, as proposed in previous research, do not appear to contain any information about the prospects of the IPO firm’s target property investment market. We also show that total returns seem to be a biased measure for direct property performance. Further tests for the signaling model’s preconditioned presence of information asymmetry among EPCs reveal that underpricing levels are a function of company-specific ex ante uncertainty proxies. In contrast, property-specific ex ante uncertainty proxies do not explain underpricing levels.     

The Relation between IPO Underpricing and Litigation Risk Revisited: Changes between 1990 and 2002

This paper reexamines the litigation risk hypothesis of initial public offering (IPO) underpricing in different legal and economic environments. When litigation risk is reduced in the three-year period after the enactment of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, firms' litigation risk plays a less significant role in IPO underpricing strategy. Furthermore, underpricing deters more traditional IPO lawsuits compared to that effect in the pre-1995 period. In the period after that, however, there is another structural change in which firms again use underpricing as insurance against IPO lawsuits. This underpricing may actually have led to greater litigation relating to IPO allocation irregularities.     

Strategic Conservative Earnings Management of Technology Firms: Evidence from the IPO Market

In this paper, we investigate the conservative earnings management strategies of technology firms in the IPO market. We hypothesize that technology IPOs, due to their fewer tangible assets, more information asymmetry, and higher uncertainties of future cash flows, tend to have higher litigation risk. At equilibrium, technology firms are more motivated to strategically employ conservative earnings management during the IPO process, to mitigate their higher litigation risk. Using a sample of U.S. IPOs, we find that technology IPOs, on average, involve significantly more conservative earnings management, especially during the bubble periods. Our results also show that the conservative earnings management strategies of technology firms tends to have a greater impact on their underpricing than for non‐tech firms, and thus effectively reduce their risk of being a target in the securities class action lawsuits.     

IPO underpricing and mutual fund allocation: New evidence from registration system

We study the effect of mutual fund allocation on China's IPO market under the new registration system. The introduction of mutual fund bids significantly increases the IPO offer price, resulting in a low initial short-term return and suppressed IPO underpricing. Those newly listed stocks witness lower volatility in the following weeks due to preferential allocation to the mutual fund at the primary market. Further analysis suggests that large investors' net purchase strengthens IPO after-market return and volatility. Besides, the effect of mutual fund participation on IPOs is stronger in places where the COVID-19 outbreak. This new evidence suggests that mutual fund allocation plays a critical role in IPO price discovery and decreases investor lottery trading.     

Audit Firm Attributes and Auditor Litigation Risk

This study examines the association between auditors' litigation risk and audit firm attributes. Using professional liability insurance premiums as a proxy for auditors' litigation risk, we present evidence that the risk is lower in audit firms having: (1) separate non-audit and audit divisions; (2) a higher proportion of partners; and (3) a higher annual growth in number of CPAs employed. Additionally, we find that the risk is higher in audit firms having: (1) operating losses; and (2) high revenue growth. Our results are consistent with the idea that audit firms' financial condition and organizational structure affect their independence/ expertise, and, in turn, their litigation risk. Our results are broadly supportive of the PCAOB's (2015) and US Department of Treasury's (2008) views that investors, audit committees, management, and other regulators could benefit from having access to financial and organizational information about audit firms.     

Do VC-backed IPOs manage tone?

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how and why VC-backed firms manage their tone during initial public offerings (IPO) and seasoned equity offerings (SEO). Analysis conducted using the Management Discussion and Analysis section of the prospectuses from 1997 to 2011 show that VC-funded firms are less optimistic in tone. VC-financed firms do so to reduce litigation risks and protect their reputational capital; the effect of conservative tone management is more pronounced when they hire large auditors, receive more analyst coverage, operate in high-tech sectors and in industries with high litigation risk. Further, tone is not related to the conveying of private information as IPO firms that received VC funding experience larger surprise unexpected returns and perform better than non-VC-backed offers in the long run.     

网络关注度对我国股票市场信息不对称程度的影响

以2013-2016年391支股票的360搜索指数中的投资者关注度和媒体关注度的指数作为网络关注度度量指标,同时基于股票市场交易数据采用多种信息不对称计算方法构建了信息不对称性度量指标,并进一步构造了信息不对称主成分综合指标。通过建立横截面回归模型,探究投资者和媒体关注度对我国股票市场的信息不对称程度的影响作用。实证分析及稳健性检验结果表明：投资者关注度的增加会减少知情交易及信息不透明程度,从而减少了股票市场的信息不对称程度,提高了股票市场的流动性;媒体关注度对不同的信息不对称性度量指标的影响存在着不一致性。本研究通过探索投资者关注度及媒体关注度在新兴市场中的应用,对于我国证券市场监管层制定政策以及对于普通投资者优化投资策略都具有重要的参考意义。     

Corporate culture and IPOs

This study documents corporate culture at the time of initial public offering (IPO) and the relationship between corporate culture at the time of IPO and firm financial performance. Based on a sample of 1157 US firms that went public between 1996 and 2011 and performance information through 2016, the data provide strong evidence that regional culture, industry characteristics, and pre-IPO financing play key roles in explaining a firm's cultural orientation. Moreover, the data indicate that IPO firms with a highly competition- and creation-oriented culture experience higher profitability and less risk of financial distress than other IPO firms.     

Securities litigation,withdrawal risk and initial public offerings

I examine the relations between litigation risk, withdrawal risk, and the costs of going public using a sample of withdrawn and completed initial public offerings (IPOs) filed during 1996–2005. Firms with a higher probability of offer withdrawal face higher litigation risk if they complete these offers. Firms with higher litigation risk pay slightly higher gross spreads, but do not underprice their IPOs by a greater amount. Withdrawal probability is strongly and positively associated with underwriter gross spreads, consistent with underwriters charging fees that reflect the probability of not getting paid. When the pre-market demand for an IPO is weak, a higher withdrawal probability raises underpricing on completed deals.     

Strategic networks,certification, and initial public offerings

This study investigates the certification effect of a firm's strategic alliance network on initial public offerings using a large data set involving 3860 IPO events from the U.S. IPO market. The results show that IPO firms with more direct alliance relationships and a more central position in the strategic network allow them to: (i) attract more prestigious underwriters and greater institutional interest; (ii) experience lower underwriting expenses, larger IPO offer sizes, and higher initial returns; and (iii) achieve superior long-term performance. Further, both the IPO firm and their strategic partners' network positions have prominent impacts on an IPO's initial issuing status and long-term performance. Our results suggest that an IPO firm's strategic alliance network serves as a useful indicator by which to determine the quality of the IPO firm.     

Initial Public Offerings on the Unlisted Securities Market: The Impact of Professional Advisers

This paper tests two hypotheses developed in the context of information asymmetry between companies making initial public offerings (IPO) on the Unlisted Securities Market and potential investors. It is argued that the status of the sponsor and audit firm are interpreted by potential investors as signals of an IPO's quality. The results indicate that for IPOs made during 1986–87 the level of discount and the status of the associated auditing firm are significantly related. Higher quality auditing firms are associated with lower levels of discount. A similar relationship for IPOs made during the period 1988–89 is not detected. The paper suggests that there were significant changes in the IPO market between these two periods. No relationship in either period is detected between the level of discount and the status of the sponsor.     

Auditor Quality, Signalling, and the Valuation of Initial Public Offerings

The initial public offering (IPO) market represents a classic example of information asymmetries where the incumbent owners have good information about the value of the business but potential investors have little data to guide them on the attractiveness of the new issue. In order to mitigate these information asymmetry problems, the sponsors of the IPO will try to enhance the credibility of the share offer through various signalling mechanisms. Of interest to this study is the role that auditing firms play in adding credibility to the new issue. In particular we test some recent theoretical models of auditor choice by examining the initial public offering market in Singapore. Our empirical results show that high risk IPOs are associated with high quality auditors. Further, high quality auditors are associated with higher IPO market valuations and they allow entrepreneurs to retain lower ownership stakes in the IPO while maintaining market valuation.     

Why are IPOs underpriced? Evidence from Japan's hybrid auction-method offerings

We document discretionary underpricing and partial adjustment of IPO prices in the public offer tranche of Japan's hybrid auction regime, in which investor information differences are not important, there are no roadshows, preferential allocations are negligible, institutional investing is low, and the public offer tranche cannot fail. The magnitude and variation of underpricing in our sample, which spans relatively hot and cold markets, are similar to those reported for US IPOs. The evidence is most consistent with underpricing arising from an implicit contract to allocate risk related to initial mispricing where, in exchange for guaranteeing a minimum price, the underwriter participates indirectly in upside performance. The results raise important questions about interpretations of IPO underpricing in the US.     

新中国农地产权制度变迁对农业投资的影响机制及实证检验

通过理论与实证分析新中国农地产权制度变迁对农业投资的影响机制发现,明确和有保障的农地产权制度减少了不确定性,降低了逆向选择风险,增强了农业经营主体对未来收益的预期,也提高了投资主体获得稳定投资收益的预期,进而增加了农业资金投入的需求和供给。实证检验结果表明：新中国成立以来的农地产权制度变迁对农业投资有显著的正向影响,每一次农地产权制度变迁都显著地促进了农业投资的增加。特别是在改革开放后,家庭联产承包责任制和土地承包经营权流转制度的确立对我国农业投资增长的影响更大。因此,我国今后要进一步改革完善农地产权制度,通过制度保护农业投资积极性,促进农业发展。     

An international look at the lawsuit avoidance hypothesis of IPO underpricing

We examine the relationship between IPO underpricing and litigation risk in an international setting using a sample of 13,759 firms that went public across 40 countries between 1991 and 2011. While the majority of single-country studies do not find support for the lawsuit avoidance hypothesis, we find a significant positive relationship between litigation risk and underpricing in a cross-country framework. Contrary to all single-country legal liability studies outside the U.S. and consistent with the U.S. studies of Tiniç (1988) and Lowry and Shu (2002), our empirical results support the insurance effect of the lawsuit avoidance hypothesis in an international context. Our findings imply that the degree of litigation risk in a given country affects the level of underpricing for firms that go public in that country. We conclude that differences in legal risk factors can partially explain differences in underpricing across countries.     

Corporate Innovation and Disclosure Strategy

This study investigates the impact of firm innovation on MD&A disclosure. Firms need to reduce information asymmetry to assist investors on the one hand and to prevent rivals from benefitting from disclosures on the other. Innovative firms can use an optimistic tone to convey good news but increase content similarity to reduce proprietary costs. Management chooses a certain content similarity and tone strategy for an innovation and as the number of innovations increases, the ratio of similar innovation disclosure and positive tone increases in the overall MD&A, resulting in greater content similarity and more news conveyed with a positive tone. We find that the firm's level of innovation is positively related to content similarity and tone optimism. We also find that this positive relation is more pronounced when product market competition is stronger and when regional intellectual property rights protection is weaker. Our further analyses on market responses provide evidence suggesting that management's disclosure strategy functions as intended.