Investor Reaction to SPACs’ Voluntary Disclosures
研究投资者如何回应SPAC（特殊目的收购公司）在合并时发布的乐观盈利预测，发现零售投资者买入增多，机构投资者减持，但整体投资者未能看穿乐观情绪，导致合并后两年业绩不佳。
ABSTRACT SPACs are formed to combine with and provide a private firm public trading status and a capital infusion. Firms that enter the public market through a SPAC combination are believed to possess greater voluntary disclosure discretion than traditional IPOs as they obtain their public trading status through a merger. Consistent with regulators’ concerns, recent research finds that SPACs use this discretion opportunistically by issuing optimistic guidance. This study examines how investors respond to these disclosures. We find that optimistic projections increase retail purchasing, which is higher than that of institutional purchasing. Additionally, we find that investors partially see through the optimism and exit at the redemption date. Furthermore, we find that institutional investors increasingly divest their holdings for combinations with optimistic projections. Investors as a whole, however, fail to see through the optimism, as combinations with optimistic projections considerably underperform in the two years following the combination. Data Availability: All data are publicly available from the sources identified in the text. JEL Classifications: M41.