This thesis extends prior research on earnings restatements by examining the effects of earnings restatements on valuation and investment decisions of restating firms’ suppliers. First, this paper hypothesizes and finds that earnings restatements that adversely affect stock price of the restating firms also induce their supplier stock price decline. The declines in stock price seem to reflect investors’ future prospect concerns and accounting quality concerns about suppliers. Second, I hypothesize that earnings restatements contain information about the value of relationship-specific investments by suppliers. This information causes suppliers to revise their belief about the value of relationship-specific investments, and therefore affects their subsequent relationship-specific investment decisions. Consistent with my prediction, I find that changes in suppliers’ relationship-specific investments after restatement announcements are related to information in the restatements. Finally, I predict and find that a restating firm misreporting financial results induces its suppliers to make excess investments during the misreporting period, while excess investment is no longer positive after the restatement announcement.
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