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Article: Federal Judge Ideology: A New Measure of Ex Ante Litigation Risk

TitleFederal Judge Ideology: A New Measure of Ex Ante Litigation Risk
Authors
KeywordsK22
K40
K41
securities litigation
litigation risk
Issue Date2019
PublisherWiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc. The Journal's web site is located at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1475-679X
Citation
Journal of Accounting Research, 2019, v. 57 n. 2, p. 431-489 How to Cite?
AbstractDrawing on the political theory of judicial decision making, our paper proposes a new and parsimonious ex ante litigation risk measure: federal judge ideology. We find that judge ideology complements existing measures of litigation risk based on industry membership and firm characteristics. Firms in liberal circuits (the third quartile in ideology) are 33.5% more likely to be sued in securities class action lawsuits than those in conservative circuits (the first quartile in ideology). This result is stronger after the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the Tellabs case. We next show that the effect of judge ideology on litigation risk is greater for firms with more sophisticated shareholders and with higher expected litigation costs. Furthermore, judicial appointments affect litigation risk and the value of firms in the circuit, highlighting the economic consequences of political appointments of judges. Finally, using our new measure, we document that litigation risk deters managers from providing long‐term earnings guidance, a result that existing measures of litigation risk cannot show.
Persistent Identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/284768
ISSN
2023 Impact Factor: 4.9
2023 SCImago Journal Rankings: 6.625
ISI Accession Number ID

 

DC FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributor.authorHuang, A-
dc.contributor.authorHui, KW-
dc.contributor.authorLi, RZ-
dc.date.accessioned2020-08-07T09:02:22Z-
dc.date.available2020-08-07T09:02:22Z-
dc.date.issued2019-
dc.identifier.citationJournal of Accounting Research, 2019, v. 57 n. 2, p. 431-489-
dc.identifier.issn0021-8456-
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/284768-
dc.description.abstractDrawing on the political theory of judicial decision making, our paper proposes a new and parsimonious ex ante litigation risk measure: federal judge ideology. We find that judge ideology complements existing measures of litigation risk based on industry membership and firm characteristics. Firms in liberal circuits (the third quartile in ideology) are 33.5% more likely to be sued in securities class action lawsuits than those in conservative circuits (the first quartile in ideology). This result is stronger after the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the Tellabs case. We next show that the effect of judge ideology on litigation risk is greater for firms with more sophisticated shareholders and with higher expected litigation costs. Furthermore, judicial appointments affect litigation risk and the value of firms in the circuit, highlighting the economic consequences of political appointments of judges. Finally, using our new measure, we document that litigation risk deters managers from providing long‐term earnings guidance, a result that existing measures of litigation risk cannot show.-
dc.languageeng-
dc.publisherWiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc. The Journal's web site is located at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1475-679X-
dc.relation.ispartofJournal of Accounting Research-
dc.rightsThis is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Journal of Accounting Research, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-679X.12260. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.-
dc.subjectK22-
dc.subjectK40-
dc.subjectK41-
dc.subjectsecurities litigation-
dc.subjectlitigation risk-
dc.titleFederal Judge Ideology: A New Measure of Ex Ante Litigation Risk-
dc.typeArticle-
dc.identifier.emailHui, KW: kaiwai@hku.hk-
dc.identifier.authorityHui, KW=rp02238-
dc.description.naturepostprint-
dc.identifier.doi10.1111/1475-679X.12260-
dc.identifier.scopuseid_2-s2.0-85063686912-
dc.identifier.hkuros312333-
dc.identifier.volume57-
dc.identifier.issue2-
dc.identifier.spage431-
dc.identifier.epage489-
dc.identifier.isiWOS:000465221200005-
dc.publisher.placeUnited States-
dc.identifier.issnl0021-8456-

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