Topic: Torpedo Your Competition: Strategic Reporting and Peer Firm IPO

Speaker: Xiaoyun Yu, Professor of Finance, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University

Date: November 28 (Wednesday)

Time: 10:00-11:30am

Location: Building 4 Room 101

Language: English

Abstract:

We show that firms manage their earnings downwards when their industry peers file for initial public offerings (IPOs). The downward accruals reverse if there are no peers attempting an IPO. This effect is stronger if peers poise a bigger threat to the incumbents and if industries are more competitive or informationally opaque. When incumbents engage in more aggressive downward earnings management, peer firms suffer from lower offer prices, raise smaller amount of capital, and are more likely to withdraw from the offering. They also invest less, hoard more cash, and experience lower profitability post IPO. Our results highlight the role of strategic disclosure on product market competition. Endogeneity of going-public activity and choice of proxies for earnings management and industry classification do not appear to drive our findings.

About the speaker:

Xiaoyun Yu is a Professor of Finance and Arthur M. Weimer Faculty Fellow at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Her research interests are in the areas of theoretical and empirical corporate finance, with a focus on information economics, IPOs, financial institutions and systems, and political economy of finance. Her work has been published in leading academic journals and has won several research awards. Her research has been featured in various media outlets, including the CNBC, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal.
Professor Yu has taught courses in corporate finance at undergraduate, MBA, EMBA and doctoral levels. She has also chaired or served as a member of dissertation committees of numerous doctoral students.