IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/corfin/v80y2023ics0929119923000718.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mutual funds' capital gains lock-in and earnings management

Author

Listed:
  • Dimmock, Stephen G.
  • Feng, Fan
  • Zhang, Huai

Abstract

Capital gains taxation creates a lock-in effect, increasing investors' incentives to monitor and decreasing portfolio firms' incentives to cater to short-term investors. We show a negative relation between lock-in and portfolio firms' earnings management, and this relation is stronger for capital gains held by tax-sensitive investors. Further, the relation between lock-in and earnings management is stronger when the capital gains tax rate is higher. We show that locked-in funds vote against management and against audit committee members' reappointment following earnings management. Locked-in funds are less likely to exit a position following disappointing earnings announcements, reducing firms' incentive to manage earnings.

Suggested Citation

  • Dimmock, Stephen G. & Feng, Fan & Zhang, Huai, 2023. "Mutual funds' capital gains lock-in and earnings management," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:80:y:2023:i:c:s0929119923000718
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2023.102422
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929119923000718
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2023.102422?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. Bin Srinidhi & Ferdinand A. Gul & Judy Tsui, 2011. "Female Directors and Earnings Quality," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(5), pages 1610-1644, December.
    2. Gus De Franco & S.P. Kothari & Rodrigo S. Verdi, 2011. "The Benefits of Financial Statement Comparability," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(4), pages 895-931, September.
    3. Benjamin C. Ayers & Craig E. Lefanowicz & John R. Robinson, 2003. "Shareholder Taxes in Acquisition Premiums: The Effect of Capital Gains Taxation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(6), pages 2783-2801, December.
    4. Cici, Gjergji, 2012. "The Prevalence of the Disposition Effect in Mutual Funds’ Trades," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 47(4), pages 795-820, August.
    5. Dickson, Joel M. & Shoven, John B. & Sialm, Clemens, 2000. "Tax Externalities of Equity Mutual Funds," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 53(3), pages 607-628, September.
    6. Alex Edmans, 2009. "Blockholder Trading, Market Efficiency, and Managerial Myopia," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(6), pages 2481-2513, December.
    7. JOSEPH A. McCAHERY & ZACHARIAS SAUTNER & LAURA T. STARKS, 2016. "Behind the Scenes: The Corporate Governance Preferences of Institutional Investors," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(6), pages 2905-2932, December.
    8. Landsman, Wayne R. & Shackelford, Douglas A., 1995. "The Lock-In Effect of Capital Gains Taxes: Evidence from the RJR Nabisco Leveraged Buyout," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 48(2), pages 245-259, June.
    9. Dechow, Patricia & Ge, Weili & Schrand, Catherine, 2010. "Understanding earnings quality: A review of the proxies, their determinants and their consequences," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 344-401, December.
    10. Lauren M. Cunningham & Bret A. Johnson & E. Scott Johnson & Ling Lei Lisic, 2020. "The Switch‐Up: An Examination of Changes in Earnings Management after Receiving SEC Comment Letters†," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(2), pages 917-944, June.
    11. Zoran Ivković & James Poterba & Scott Weisbenner, 2005. "Tax-Motivated Trading by Individual Investors," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(5), pages 1605-1630, December.
    12. Patricia M. Dechow & Richard G. Sloan & Amy P. Sweeney, 1996. "Causes and Consequences of Earnings Manipulation: An Analysis of Firms Subject to Enforcement Actions by the SEC," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(1), pages 1-36, March.
    13. A. Colin Cameron & Douglas L. Miller, 2015. "A Practitioner’s Guide to Cluster-Robust Inference," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 317-372.
    14. Clemens Sialm & Laura T. Starks & Hanjiang Zhang, 2015. "Defined Contribution Pension Plans: Sticky or Discerning Money?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(2), pages 805-838, April.
    15. Zhonglan Dai & Edward Maydew & Douglas A. Shackelford & Harold H. Zhang, 2008. "Capital Gains Taxes and Asset Prices: Capitalization or Lock‐in?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(2), pages 709-742, April.
    16. Gul, Ferdinand A. & Srinidhi, Bin & Ng, Anthony C., 2011. "Does board gender diversity improve the informativeness of stock prices?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 314-338, April.
    17. Lin, Leming & Flannery, Mark J., 2013. "Do personal taxes affect capital structure? Evidence from the 2003 tax cut," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 549-565.
    18. Brian Bratten & Jeff L. Payne & Wayne B. Thomas, 2016. "Earnings Management: Do Firms Play “Follow the Leader†?," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(2), pages 616-643, June.
    19. Clemens Sialm & Laura Starks & Hanjiang Zhang, 2015. "Defined Contribution Pension Plans: Mutual Fund Asset Allocation Changes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 432-436, May.
    20. Li, Oliver Zhen & Lin, Yupeng & Robinson, John R., 2016. "The effect of capital gains taxes on the initial pricing and underpricing of IPOs," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 465-485.
    21. Eric Weisbrod, 2019. "Stockholders’ Unrealized Returns and the Market Reaction to Financial Disclosures," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 74(2), pages 899-942, April.
    22. Elton, Edwin J & Gruber, Martin J, 1970. "Marginal Stockholder Tax Rates and the Clientele Effect," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 52(1), pages 68-74, February.
    23. Brian J. Bushee, 2001. "Do Institutional Investors Prefer Near†Term Earnings over Long†Run Value?," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(2), pages 207-246, June.
    24. Constantinides, George M., 1984. "Optimal stock trading with personal taxes : Implications for prices and the abnormal January returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 65-89, March.
    25. Dou, Yiwei & Khan, Mozaffar & Zou, Youli, 2016. "Labor unemployment insurance and earnings management," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 166-184.
    26. Roychowdhury, Sugata, 2006. "Earnings management through real activities manipulation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 335-370, December.
    27. Gary Chamberlain, 1980. "Analysis of Covariance with Qualitative Data," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 47(1), pages 225-238.
    28. Khan, Mozaffar & Watts, Ross L., 2009. "Estimation and empirical properties of a firm-year measure of accounting conservatism," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2-3), pages 132-150, December.
    29. Klein, Peter, 1999. "The capital gain lock-in effect and equilibrium returns," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 355-378, March.
    30. Landsman, Wayne R. & Shackelford, Douglas A., 1995. "The Lock-in Effect of Capital Gains Taxes: Evidence From the RJR Nabisco Leveraged Buyout," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 48(2), pages 245-259, June.
    31. Bergstresser, Daniel & Poterba, James, 2002. "Do after-tax returns affect mutual fund inflows?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(3), pages 381-414, March.
    32. Constantinides, George M, 1983. "Capital Market Equilibrium with Personal Tax," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(3), pages 611-636, May.
    33. Barth, Mary E. & Konchitchki, Yaniv & Landsman, Wayne R., 2013. "Cost of capital and earnings transparency," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 206-224.
    34. Benjamin C. Ayers & Craig E. Lefanowicz & John R. Robinson, 2007. "Capital Gains Taxes and Acquisition Activity: Evidence of the Lock†in Effect," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(2), pages 315-344, June.
    35. Aggarwal, Reena & Dahiya, Sandeep & Prabhala, Nagpurnanand R., 2019. "The power of shareholder votes: Evidence from uncontested director elections," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(1), pages 134-153.
    36. Lee, Gemma & Masulis, Ronald W., 2009. "Seasoned equity offerings: Quality of accounting information and expected flotation costs," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(3), pages 443-469, June.
    37. Alex Edmans, 2014. "Blockholders and Corporate Governance," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 23-50, December.
    38. Clemens Sialm & Laura Starks, 2012. "Mutual Fund Tax Clienteles," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(4), pages 1397-1422, August.
    39. Francis, Jennifer & LaFond, Ryan & Olsson, Per & Schipper, Katherine, 2005. "The market pricing of accruals quality," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 295-327, June.
    40. Dimmock, Stephen G. & Gerken, William C. & Ivković, Zoran & Weisbenner, Scott J., 2018. "Capital gains lock-in and governance choices," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(1), pages 113-135.
    41. Martin Feldstein & Joel Slemrod & Shlomo Yitzhaki, 1980. "The Effects of Taxation on the Selling of Corporate Stock and the Realization of Capital Gains," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 94(4), pages 777-791.
    42. David Aboody & John Hughes & Jing Liu, 2005. "Earnings Quality, Insider Trading, and Cost of Capital," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(5), pages 651-673, December.
    43. Wei Chen & Paul Hribar & Samuel Melessa, 2018. "Incorrect Inferences When Using Residuals as Dependent Variables," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 751-796, June.
    44. Kalay, Avner, 1982. "The Ex-Dividend Pay Behavior of Stock Prices: A Re-Examination of the Clientele Effect," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 37(4), pages 1059-1070, September.
    45. Jennifer L. Blouin & Jana Smith Raedy & Douglas A. Shackelford, 2003. "Capital Gains Taxes and Equity Trading: Empirical Evidence," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(4), pages 611-651, September.
    46. Paul Hribar & D. Craig Nichols, 2007. "The Use of Unsigned Earnings Quality Measures in Tests of Earnings Management," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(5), pages 1017-1053, December.
    47. Kothari, S.P. & Leone, Andrew J. & Wasley, Charles E., 2005. "Performance matched discretionary accrual measures," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 163-197, February.
    48. Ivkovic, Zoran & Weisbenner, Scott, 2009. "Individual investor mutual fund flows," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 223-237, May.
    49. Klein, Peter, 1998. "The capital gain lock-in effect with short sales constraints," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(12), pages 1533-1558, December.
    50. Anup Srivastava, 2019. "Improving the measures of real earnings management," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 1277-1316, December.
    51. Chen, Xia & Harford, Jarrad & Li, Kai, 2007. "Monitoring: Which institutions matter?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 279-305, November.
    52. Li Jin, 2006. "Capital Gains Tax Overhang and Price Pressure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(3), pages 1399-1431, June.
    53. Freeman, Robert & Tse, Senyo, 1992. "An earnings prediction approach to examining intercompany information transfers," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 509-523, December.
    54. Ramalingegowda, Santhosh & Yu, Yong, 2012. "Institutional ownership and conservatism," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 98-114.
    55. Anthony, Joseph H. & Ramesh, K., 1992. "Association between accounting performance measures and stock prices : A test of the life cycle hypothesis," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2-3), pages 203-227, August.
    56. Callen, Jeffrey L. & Fang, Xiaohua, 2013. "Institutional investor stability and crash risk: Monitoring versus short-termism?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 3047-3063.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. He, Eric & Jacob, Martin & Vashishtha, Rahul & Venkatachalam, Mohan, 2022. "Does differential taxation of short-term relative to long-term capital gains affect long-term investment?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1).
    2. Hanlon, Michelle & Heitzman, Shane, 2010. "A review of tax research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 127-178, December.
    3. Chyz, James A. & Li, Oliver Zhen, 2012. "Do Tax Sensitive Investors Liquidate Appreciated Shares After a Capital Gains Tax Rate Reduction?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 65(3), pages 595-627, September.
    4. Jin, Li & Kothari, S.P., 2008. "Effect of personal taxes on managers' decisions to sell their stock," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 23-46, September.
    5. Chris Mitchell, 2019. "The Lock-In Effect and the Corporate Payout Puzzle," ISER Discussion Paper 1070r, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University, revised Aug 2021.
    6. Dimmock, Stephen G. & Gerken, William C. & Ivković, Zoran & Weisbenner, Scott J., 2018. "Capital gains lock-in and governance choices," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(1), pages 113-135.
    7. Santhosh Ramalingegowda & Steven Utke & Yong Yu, 2021. "Common Institutional Ownership and Earnings Management," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(1), pages 208-241, March.
    8. Chris Mitchell, 2019. "The Lock-In Effect and the Corporate Payout Puzzle," ISER Discussion Paper 1070, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    9. Michał Kałdoński & Tomasz Jewartowski, 2024. "Governance through exit: Pension fund reform impact on real earnings management of portfolio companies," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 63(4), pages 1349-1389, November.
    10. Clemens Sialm, 2009. "Tax Changes and Asset Pricing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(4), pages 1356-1383, September.
    11. Clemens Sialm & Hanjiang Zhang, 2020. "Tax‐Efficient Asset Management: Evidence from Equity Mutual Funds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(2), pages 735-777, April.
    12. Zhonglan Dai & Edward Maydew & Douglas A. Shackelford & Harold H. Zhang, 2008. "Capital Gains Taxes and Asset Prices: Capitalization or Lock‐in?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(2), pages 709-742, April.
    13. Lai, Karen M.Y. & Khedmati, Mehdi & Gul, Ferdinand A. & Mount, Matthew P., 2023. "Making honest men of them: Institutional investors, financial reporting, and the appointment of female directors to all-male boards," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    14. Hasan, M. Emrul & Klein, Peter, 2022. "The capital gain lock-in effect and seasoned equity offerings," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    15. Poterba, James M., 2002. "Taxation, risk-taking, and household portfolio behavior," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 17, pages 1109-1171, Elsevier.
    16. Niemann, Rainer & Sureth, Caren, 2009. "Investment effects of capital gains taxation under simultaneous investment and abandonment flexibility," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 77, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    17. Oh, Hyunjin & Chung, Chune Young & Fard, Amirhossein, 2023. "Tacit vigilance in an emerging economy: An institution-based perspective of passive blockholder monitoring," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    18. Klein, Peter, 2004. "The capital gain lock-in effect and perfect substitutes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(12), pages 2765-2783, December.
    19. Claudio Agostini & Mariel C. Siravegna, 2009. "Efectos de la Exención Tributaria a las Ganancias de Capital en el Precio de las Acciones en Chile," ILADES-UAH Working Papers inv233, Universidad Alberto Hurtado/School of Economics and Business.
    20. Alexandre Garel & Jose Martin-Flores & Arthur Petit-Romec & Ayesha Scott, 2021. "Institutional investor distraction and earnings management," Post-Print hal-03096196, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Earnings quality; Earnings management; Capital gains tax; Capital gains lock-in; Mutual funds;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M40 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - General
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General

    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:corfin:v:80:y:2023:i:c:s0929119923000718. 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/jcorpfin .

    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.