Earnings Quality and Ownership Structure: The Role of Private Equity Sponsors

Sharon Katz

No 14085, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This study explores how firms' ownership structures affect their earnings quality and long-term performance. Focusing on a unique sample of private firms for which there is financial data available in the years before and after their initial public offering (IPO), I differentiate between those that have private equity sponsorship (PE-backed firms) and those that do not (non-PE-backed firms). The findings indicate that PE-backed firms generally have higher earnings quality than those that do not have PE sponsorship, engage less in earnings management and report more conservatively both before and after the IPO. Further, PE-backed firms that are majority-owned by PE sponsors exhibit superior long-term stock price performance after they go public. These results stem from the professional ownership, tighter monitoring, and reputational considerations exhibited by PE sponsors.

JEL-codes: G0 G24 G3 M1 M41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-acc and nep-cfn
Date: 2008-06
Note: CF
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