Determinants of market reactions to restatement announcements

We examine the market reaction to a sample of 403 restatements announced from 1995 to 1999. We document an average abnormal return of about -9 percent over a 2-day announcement window. We find that more negative returns are associated with restatements involving fraud, affecting more accounts, decreasing reported income and attributed to auditors or management (but not the Securities and Exchange Commission). There appears to be an additional penalty for announcements that do not quantify the restatement. Finally, we provide evidence on the relation between restatement announcements and analyst earnings forecast dispersion, bid-ask spreads and subsequent revisions in analyst earnings forecasts. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.