Do IPO Firms Misclassify Expenses? Implications for IPO Price Formation and Post-IPO Stock Performance
研究IPO公司在上市前通过将核心费用归类为特殊项目来虚增核心盈余，发现这种行为影响IPO定价且与上市后股票回报负相关，提醒投资者和监管者注意。
This study investigates whether initial public offering (IPO) firms inflate “core” earnings through classification shifting (i.e., misclassifying core expenses as income-decreasing special items) immediately prior to IPOs. We provide initial evidence that IPO firms engage in classification shifting in the pre-IPO period. Using hand-collected price and share information from IPO prospectuses, we find that pre-IPO classification shifting is positively associated with a price revision from the midpoint of the initial price range to the final offer price, suggesting that pre-IPO classification shifting influences IPO price formation. Furthermore, we find that pre-IPO classification shifting is negatively associated with post-IPO stock returns. Overall, our findings caution investors, auditors, and regulators that classification shifting, a seemingly innocuous accounting maneuver, can mislead investors in their IPO valuation and is associated with post-IPO underperformance. This paper was accepted by Brian Bushee, accounting.