The use of accounting and corporate governance information in the prediction of securities class actions

Abstract

During the last fifteen years the conventional lawsuit has been transformed to a modern type of massive litigation; the securities class actions. This topic has been investigated by some researchers in the past but still the prediction of it has not been adequately been approached. This study examines this alternative way of litigation gathering the largest sample so far (2,072 USA firms) during 2003-2011. The aim of this research is to provide an understanding of the features of securities class action target firms and compare the alternative classification techniques, in order to predict this phenomenon. Having selected quantitative (accounting data) and qualitative data (corporate governance indices) we enrich literature with useful information concerning the profile of firms that are threatened by securities class action.