68th International Atlantic Economic Conference

October 08 - 11, 2009 | Boston, USA

Firm Value, Cross-Listing Premium, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act

Friday, October 9, 2009: 2:00 PM
Marcelo Bianconi, Ph.D. , Economics, Tufts University, Medford, MA
This paper presents empirical evidence on the effects of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of

2002 on the value of firms and on the cross-listing choice of firms destined to three

major markets in North America, Asia and Europe. We use dynamic panel data

methods and treatment effects methods to find that Sarbanes-Oxley has had a negative

impact on the value of firms worldwide. However, the effect of Sox on the crosslisting

decision is positive in the US destination and negative in the Germany

destination; and the Hong Kong destination seems to attract cross-listing of firms with

lower valuations relative to the US and Germany destination. In terms of the crosslisting

decision, the evidence is in favor of crowding in the market where the

accounting standards are better, lending support to the signaling and bonding

hypotheses of cross-listing choice.