IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/accoun/v49y2014i4p426-454.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On Litigation Risk and Disclosure Complexity: Evidence from Canadian Firms Cross-Listed in the US

Author

Listed:
  • Gillan, Stuart L.
  • Panasian, Christine A.

Abstract

We find that D&O insurance premiums for Canadian firms cross-listed in the US are more than twice those of Canadian-only listed firms, and audit fees are approximately 50% higher. While this supports the view that both service-providers view the US as a more litigious environment, our findings also suggest that these differentials for cross-listed firms reflect premia for both litigation risk and the complexity of firms' financial disclosures. In particular, we show that D&O liability insurers charge differently for cross-listed firms that have different levels of disclosure; while D&O premiums are significantly higher for all cross-listed firms, they increase and then decrease with increased disclosure complexity. In contrast, audit fees increase monotonically as the filing complexity increases. We also find that auditors appear to price abnormal premiums charged by D&O insurers. Thus, audit fee premia for cross-listed firms appear to capture aspects of both litigation risk and increased disclosure complexity.

Suggested Citation

  • Gillan, Stuart L. & Panasian, Christine A., 2014. "On Litigation Risk and Disclosure Complexity: Evidence from Canadian Firms Cross-Listed in the US," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 426-454.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:accoun:v:49:y:2014:i:4:p:426-454
    DOI: 10.1016/j.intacc.2014.10.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020706314000934
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.intacc.2014.10.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael R. King, 2009. "Prebid Run‐Ups Ahead of Canadian Takeovers: How Big Is the Problem?," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 38(4), pages 699-726, December.
    2. Palmrose, Zv, 1986. "Audit Fees And Auditor Size - Further Evidence," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(1), pages 97-110.
    3. Utpal Bhattacharya & Hazem Daouk, 2002. "The World Price of Insider Trading," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(1), pages 75-108, February.
    4. Simunic, Da, 1980. "The Pricing Of Audit Services - Theory And Evidence," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 161-190.
    5. Sattar A. Mansi & William F. Maxwell & Darius P. Miller, 2004. "Does Auditor Quality and Tenure Matter to Investors? Evidence from the Bond Market," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(4), pages 755-793, September.
    6. Chung, Hyeesoo H. & Wynn, Jinyoung P., 2008. "Managerial legal liability coverage and earnings conservatism," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 135-153, September.
    7. Seetharaman, Ananth & Gul, Ferdinand A. & Lynn, Stephen G., 2002. "Litigation risk and audit fees: evidence from UK firms cross-listed on US markets," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 91-115, February.
    8. Leuz, Christian & Nanda, Dhananjay & Wysocki, Peter D., 2003. "Earnings management and investor protection: an international comparison," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 505-527, September.
    9. Callaghan, Joseph H. & Parkash, Mohinder & Singhal, Rajeev, 2008. "The impact of the Multi-jurisdiction Disclosure System on audit fees of cross-listed Canadian firms," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 99-113.
    10. Paul K. Chaney & Kirk L. Philipich, 2002. "Shredded Reputation: The Cost of Audit Failure," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(4), pages 1221-1245, September.
    11. Zhiyan Cao & Ganapathi S. Narayanamoorthy, 2011. "The Effect of Litigation Risk on Management Earnings Forecasts," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(1), pages 125-173, March.
    12. Ugur Lel & Darius P. Miller, 2008. "International Cross‐Listing, Firm Performance, and Top Management Turnover: A Test of the Bonding Hypothesis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(4), pages 1897-1937, August.
    13. Holderness, Clifford G., 1990. "Liability insurers as corporate monitors," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 115-129, September.
    14. Jong†Hag Choi & Jeong†Bon Kim & Xiaohong Liu & Dan A. Simunic, 2008. "Audit Pricing, Legal Liability Regimes, and Big 4 Premiums: Theory and Cross†country Evidence," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(1), pages 55-99, March.
    15. David F. Larcker & Scott A. Richardson, 2004. "Fees Paid to Audit Firms, Accrual Choices, and Corporate Governance," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(3), pages 625-658, June.
    16. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    17. Tom Baker, "undated". "Insurance and the Law," University of Connecticut School of Law Working Papers uconn_ucwps-1004, University of Connecticut School of Law.
    18. John M. R. Chalmers & Larry Y. Dann & Jarrad Harford, 2002. "Managerial Opportunism? Evidence from Directors' and Officers' Insurance Purchases," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(2), pages 609-636, April.
    19. Kinney, William Jr. & McDaniel, Linda S., 1989. "Characteristics of firms correcting previously reported quarterly earnings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 71-93, February.
    20. Siegel, Jordan, 2005. "Can foreign firms bond themselves effectively by renting U.S. securities laws?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 319-359, February.
    21. Dye, Ronald A, 1993. "Auditing Standards, Legal Liability, and Auditor Wealth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(5), pages 887-914, October.
    22. Core, John E, 2000. "The Directors' and Officers' Insurance Premium: An Outside Assessment of the Quality of Corporate Governance," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 16(2), pages 449-477, October.
    23. Mayers, David & Smith, Clifford W, Jr, 1982. "On the Corporate Demand for Insurance," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 55(2), pages 281-296, April.
    24. Field, Laura & Lowry, Michelle & Shu, Susan, 2005. "Does disclosure deter or trigger litigation?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 487-507, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chen, Zhihong & Li, Oliver Zhen & Zou, Hong, 2016. "Directors׳ and officers׳ liability insurance and the cost of equity," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 100-120.
    2. Hong, Philip K. & Hwang, Seokyoun, 2018. "Fair value disclosure of pension plan assets and audit fees," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 88-96.
    3. Park, Min, 2018. "What drives corporate insurance demand? Evidence from directors' and officers' liability insurance in Korea," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 235-257.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chi, Hsin-Yi & Weng, Tzu-Ching, 2014. "Managerial legal liability and Big 4 auditor choice," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(9), pages 1857-1869.
    2. Lin, Chen & Officer, Micah S. & Wang, Rui & Zou, Hong, 2013. "Directors' and officers' liability insurance and loan spreads," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(1), pages 37-60.
    3. DeFond, Mark & Zhang, Jieying, 2014. "A review of archival auditing research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 275-326.
    4. Ray Ball, 2009. "Market and Political/Regulatory Perspectives on the Recent Accounting Scandals," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 277-323, May.
    5. Chen, Zhihong & Li, Oliver Zhen & Zou, Hong, 2016. "Directors׳ and officers׳ liability insurance and the cost of equity," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 100-120.
    6. Lin, Chen & Officer, Micah S. & Zou, Hong, 2011. "Directors' and officers' liability insurance and acquisition outcomes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(3), pages 507-525.
    7. Boyer, M. Martin & Stern, Léa H., 2014. "D&O insurance and IPO performance: What can we learn from insurers?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 504-540.
    8. M. Martin Boyer & Amandine Hanon, 2009. "Protecting Directors and Officers from Liability Arising from Aggressive Earnings Management," CIRANO Working Papers 2009s-35, CIRANO.
    9. M. Martin Boyer, 2012. "Insurer Information, Insiders and Initial Public Offering," CIRANO Working Papers 2012s-30, CIRANO.
    10. Liao, Tsai-Ling & Chuang, Hwei-Lin & Wang, Jo-Yu, 2022. "Directors' and officers’ liability insurance and the pricing of seasoned equity offerings," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 12-26.
    11. Li, Tianshi & Yang, Tina & Zhu, Jigao, 2022. "Directors’ and officers’ liability insurance: Evidence from independent directors’ voting," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    12. Smith, Deborah Drummond & Gleason, Kimberly C. & Kannan, Yezen H., 2021. "Auditor liability and excess cash holdings: Evidence from audit fees of foreign incorporated firms," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    13. Derrick W. H. Fung & Jason J. H. Yeh, 2018. "Inherent Virtue or Inevitable Evil: The Effects of Directors' and Officers' Insurance on Firm Value," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 21(2), pages 243-288, September.
    14. Dang, Man & Puwanenthiren, Premkanth & Truong, Cameron & Henry, Darren & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2022. "Audit quality and seasoned equity offerings methods," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    15. Lin, Feng-Yi & Guan, Liming & Ho, Chia-Ling & Wang, Teng-Shih, 2022. "Examining the D&O insurance effect on managerial ability," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PA).
    16. Gu, Junjian, 2021. "FDI characteristics, industry homogeneity, and audit fees in Japanese multinationals," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    17. Meng-Chi Chueh & Shen-Ho Chang, 2022. "Effects of Directors and Officers Insurance on Earnings Management Strategies: Moderating Role of Restatement Announcements," International Journal of Business and Economic Sciences Applied Research (IJBESAR), International Hellenic University (IHU), Kavala Campus, Greece (formerly Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology - EMaTTech), vol. 15(1), pages 71-93, July.
    18. Zhang, Xuejiao & Huang, Shoufeng & Li, Wanfu & Wang, Yu, 2023. "Directors' and officers' liability insurance, environmental regulation and firms' envi ronmental responsibility," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    19. Steve Fortin & Jeffrey A. Pittman, 2007. "The Role of Auditor Choice in Debt Pricing in Private Firms," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(3), pages 859-896, September.
    20. Paul André & GéRaldine Broye & Christopher Pong & Alain Schatt, 2016. "Are Joint Audits Associated with Higher Audit Fees?," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(2), pages 245-274, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Litigation; Disclosure; Audit fees; D&O liability insurance; Cross-listed;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:accoun:v:49:y:2014:i:4:p:426-454. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620179 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.