Business Commons^™

The Effects Of Antitrust Laws On Horizontal Mergers: International Evidence, Chune Young Chung, Iftekhar Hasan, Jihoon Hwang, Incheol Kim

Finance Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study examines how antitrust law adoptions affect horizontal merger and acquisition (M&A) outcomes. Using the staggered introduction of competition laws in 20 countries, we find antitrust regulation decreases acquirers’ five-day cumulative abnormal returns surrounding horizontal merger announcements. A decrease in deal value, target book assets, and industry peers' announcement returns are consistent with the market power hypothesis. Exploiting antitrust law adoptions addresses a downward bias to an estimated effect of antitrust enforcement (Baker (2003)). The potential bias from heterogeneous treatment effects does not nullify our results. Overall, antitrust policies seem to deter post-merger monopolistic gains, potentially improving customer welfare.

Ceo Political Ideology And Voluntary Forward-Looking Disclosure, Ahmed Elnahas, Lei Gao, Md Noman Hossain, Jeong-Bon Kim

Finance Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study investigates whether the management earnings forecasts of Republican and Democratic CEOs differ due to systematic differences in their information disclosure preferences. We find that Republican CEOs prefer a less asymmetric information environment than Democrat CEOs, and thus make more frequent, timelier, and more accurate disclosures than Democrat CEOs. Results using the propensity score matched sample and difference-in-differences analysis show that our results are unlikely to be driven by potential endogeneity. Our results are robust to controlling for various CEO characteristics and are stronger for firms with higher levels of institutional ownership and litigation risk.

Competition Law Reform And Firm Performance: Evidence From Developing Countries, Incheol Kim, Suin Lee, Bina Sharma

Finance Faculty Publications and Presentations

We examine the effects of competition laws on firm performance in East Asian countries that have enacted antitrust legislation in the last three decades. Exploiting the staggered changes of these laws as quasi-exogenous shocks, we find that strengthened competition laws improve firm performance. Treated firms increase R&D investments and efficiency in inventory and asset management, while free cash flow decreases after reforms. Also, the effect of competition laws on firm performance is stronger with weaker corporate governance. Our findings indicate that government intervention promoting competitive market environments could benefit corporate owners in emerging markets where corporate governance is often substandard.

The Competitive Environment Of U.S. Community Banking: A Nationwide Survey Of Rural And Metropolitan Community Bankers, Robert D. Morrison, Dave Jackson, Joo Y. Jung

Finance Faculty Publications and Presentations

Prior empirical research found that in the United States, rural community banks earn higher profits than their metropolitan counterparts and have lower risk loan portfolios as well. Investigating community bank failures since 2000 we find support for the competition-fragility view that increased competition in banking correlates with an increase in bank failures based on the finding that preponderance of US bank failures are community banks in metropolitan areas where they face direct competition from multiple large banks. This study tests seven hypotheses using a nationwide survey of community bankers. The results indicate metropolitan bankers perceive an intense competitive environment where …

Media As Other Information For Fundamental Valuation, Jiajia Fu, Jingran Zhao

School of Accountancy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The media is an important information intermediary. We investigate the informational role of the media by examining whether media content, measured by the sentiment of news articles, contains information about a firm’s fundamental value beyond that conveyed in earnings, book value, and analyst forecasts. We show that incorporating media content into Ohlson’s (1995) residual income model generally improves its ability to predict future residual income, explain current stock prices, and predict future stock prices. Our results are strengthened when media coverage is higher and when media sentiment is more dispersed

The Color Of Shareholders' Money: Institutional Shareholders' Political Values And Corporate Environmental Disclosure, Incheol Kim, Ji Woo Ryou, Rong Yang

Finance Faculty Publications and Presentations

Highlights

• Institutional shareholders’ political values significantly influences corporate environmental disclosure and performance.

• Firms with Republican-oriented institutional shareholders are less likely to issue environmental reports.

• Institutional shareholders’ Republican-oriented political values are negatively associated with environmental performance.

• Institutional shareholders’ Republican-oriented political values are negatively associated with green innovations.

Abstract

In this study, we investigate whether and to what extent institutional shareholders' political values influence their investees' environmental disclosure and performance. Using employees' political donation data, we construct institutional investors' political ideology score, which higher (lower) value represents a more Republican- (Democratic)-leaning culture. We find that firms led by institutional shareholders with a …

Know Thy Neighbor: Political Uncertainty And The Informational Advantage Of Local Institutional Investors, Tom Aabo, Suin Lee, Christos Pantzalis, Jung Chul Park

Finance Faculty Publications and Presentations

Previous literature finds a positive association between short-term changes in institutional holdings (especially those of local institutions) and subsequent short-term stock performance. We contribute by investigating the importance of geographical proximity under policy uncertainty. We show that the short-term informational advantage of local institutions only thrives in areas that are either politically closely aligned with the president or where the state government (governorship and legislature) is under the control of one party. Our findings are important in understanding the avenues through which geographical proximity may provide the basis for exploitable informational advantages.

Policy Uncertainty And The Dual Role Of Corporate Political Strategies, Chansog Francis Kim, Incheol Kim, Christos Pantzalis, Jung Chul Park

Finance Faculty Publications and Presentations

Firms use active political strategies not only to mitigate uncertainty emanating from legislative activity, but also to enhance their growth opportunities. We find that a firm's systematic risk (beta) can be hedged away by employing various political strategies involving the presence of former politicians on corporate boards of directors, contributions to political campaigns, and corporate lobbying activities. The hedging effect is greater when firms operate in more uncertain industries. In addition, active political strategies are associated with greater firm heterogeneity and make real options more value relevant as potential drivers of competitive advantages in uncertain environments.

Shareholder Coordination And Stock Price Informativeness, Incheol Kim, Christos Pantzalis, Bin Wang

Finance Faculty Publications and Presentations

We show that firm-specific information is more likely to be incorporated into stock prices when firms have stronger shareholder coordination. The premise of our work is that geographic proximity reduces communication costs among shareholders, thereby leading to better coordination. The positive coordination-informativeness relation is driven mainly by shareholder coordination among dedicated and independent institutions. We further show that the positive effect is more pronounced for firms with weaker governance mechanisms, suggesting that shareholder coordination could serve as a substitute conduit of price discovery. Lastly, we propose that shareholder coordination improves stock price informativeness through the channel of enhanced voluntary disclosure …

Do Unions Affect Innovation?, Daniel Bradley, Incheol Kim, Xuan Tian

Finance Faculty Publications and Presentations

We examine the effect of unionization on firm innovation, using a regression discontinuity design that relies on “locally” exogenous variation generated by elections that pass or fail by a small margin of votes. Passing a union election results in an 8.7% (12.5%) decline in patent quantity (quality) three years after the election. A reduction in R&D expenditures, reduced productivity of inventors, and departures of innovative inventors appear to be plausible underlying mechanisms through which unionization impedes firm innovation. In response to unionization, firms move their innovation activities away from states where union elections win. Our paper provides new insights into …

Top Vc Ipo Underpricing, Daniel Bradley, Incheol Kim, Laurie Krigman

Finance Faculty Publications and Presentations

Highlights

• Top VCs are the underwriters' best clients and thus should get the best service.

• Top VC IPOs receive more analyst coverage than non-top VC IPOs.

• Top VC IPOs are twice as underpriced as non-top VC IPOs.

• Regulatory shocks starting in 2000 eliminated the value of all-star coverage.

• The quid pro quo of underpricing for research coverage disappeared.

Abstract

Before the IPO bubble burst, the first day return for IPOs backed by top VC firms was double that of non-top VC IPOs. Top VC IPOs were also twice as likely to receive all-star analyst coverage and suffered twice as large …