Weakened outside shareholder rights in dual-class firms and timely loss reporting Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • In this paper, we examine timely loss reporting for U.S. firms with a dual-class share structure, i.e., firms characterized by a divergence (wedge) between insiders' voting rights and cash flow rights. In our primary analysis, we find compelling evidence that the wedge (quantified by excess voting rights) is associated with less timely loss reporting for these firms. In our secondary analysis, in which we match our sample of dual-class share observations with a sample of single-class share observations, we find similar results. Our paper informs public policy by showing that weakened outside shareholder rights matter, even in the U.S., where, despite a strong investor protection environment, dual-class firms are less timely in recognizing bad news in reported earnings. 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

published proceedings

  • Journal of Contemporary Accounting & Economics

author list (cited authors)

  • Khurana, I. K., Raman, K. K., & Wang, D.

citation count

  • 7

complete list of authors

  • Khurana, Inder K||Raman, KK||Wang, Dechun

publication date

  • December 2013