Matthew Cedergren

Assistant Professor of Accounting

Contact Information

Primary Email:
mcede@wharton.upenn.edu
Office Phone:
215-898-7125

office Address:
1314 Steinberg - Dietrich Hall
3620 Locust Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6365

Research Interests: accounting issues in silicon valley / high-tech firms, capital markets, information content of accounting measures, initial public offerings, insider trading & securities litigation, management forecasting & disclosure

Links: CV

Overview

Professor Cedergren’s research focuses on disclosure activity and its relationship with securities litigation and regulations. In a recent paper in the Journal of Accounting and Economics, he investigates how managers’ trading activity affects their likelihood to warn of impending negative earnings surprises, and how potential class action plaintiffs use observed trading in deciding whether to initiate litigation when such negative surprises manifest. Professor Cedergren’s research interests also include initial public offerings, accounting issues in high-tech firms, and the capital market effects and information content of accounting measures.

Prior to his academic career, Professor Cedergren spent six years in the Assurance practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in San Jose, California, where his responsibilities included financial statement audits and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance for semiconductor clients in Silicon Valley. While at PwC, Professor Cedergren also worked on several stock option backdating investigations and related financial restatements, including those of Mercury Interactive, Marvell Technology Group, and Trident Microsystems.

Professor Cedergren obtained his PhD from the New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business, his BBA/MAcc from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is a CFA charterholder and Certified Public Accountant (licensed in California).

Research

Brian Bushee, Matthew Cedergren, Jeremy Michels (2020), Does the Media Help or Hurt Retail Investors during the IPO Quiet Period?, Journal of Accounting and Economics, 69 (1). 10.1016/j.jacceco.2019.101261 Abstract
We examine how the media influences retail trade and market returns during the “quiet period” that follows a firm’s IPO. We find that more media coverage during this period is associated with more purchases by retail investors and that such purchases are attention-driven, rather than information-based. Further, these retail trades are negatively associated with stock returns at the firm’s first earnings announcement post-IPO. Our results suggest that media coverage, combined with market frictions that limit price efficiency in the post-IPO period, leads to worse investing outcomes for retail investors.
Matthew Cedergren, Changling Chen, Kai Chen (Working), The Implication of Unrecognized Intangible Assets on the Relation between Market Valuation and Debt Valuation Adjustment.
Mary Brooke Billings, Matthew Cedergren, Svenja Dube (Working), Do Managers Respond to Litigation With Silence?.
Matthew Cedergren (Working), Joining the Conversation: How Quiet is the IPO Quiet Period?.
Mary Brooke Billings, Matthew Cedergren, Stephen Ryan (Working), R&D Jumps as Exercises of Real Continuation Call Options.
Matthew Cedergren, Baruch Lev, Paul Zarowin (Under Revision), SFAS 142, Conditional Conservatism, and Acquisition Profitability and Risk.
Mary Brooke Billings and Matthew Cedergren (2015), Strategic silence, insider selling and litigation risk, Journal of Accounting and Economics, 59 (2-3), pp. 119-142. Abstract
Prior work finds that managers beneficially time their purchases, but not sales, prior to forecasts. Focusing on if (as opposed to when) a forecast is given, we link insider selling to silence in advance of earnings disappointments. This raises the question of whether the absence of incriminating trading drives reductions in litigation risk potentially attributed to warnings. We find that the absence of a warning combined with the presence of selling exacerbates the consequences associated with the individual behaviors. Yet, selling prior to a warning typically does not offset all of the warning?s benefit. In so doing, we supply the first robust evidence of a litigation benefit associated with warning.

Teaching

Past Courses

ACCT2120 - Fin Measurement & Disclo
This course builds on the knowledge you obtained in your introductory financial accounting course. This is an intermediate level course on financial reporting which covers more complicated transactions than those found in ACCT 1010. We will cover major valuation and financial reporting topics on all three major sections of the balance sheet-assets, liabilities, and equity-along with their consequences for net income and cash flows. Case studies and illustrative examples from the financial press will be used to increase your familiarity with actual firms' financial statements and to emphasize the effect of financial accounting rules on the information presented in financial statements. After completing this course, you will have obtained many of the tools necessary to both prepare and analyze financial statements and accounting information provided by firms. You will acquire an understanding of both the "how" of accounting procedures and the underlying reasons "why" these practices are adopted. These skills are essential for pursuing a broad range of professions in accounting and finance.
ACCT3990 - Independent Study
Intensive reading and study with some research under the direction of a faculty member. Approval from one of the departmental advisers must be obtained before registration. Also a 3.4 average in major related subjects required.

Activity

Latest Research

Brian Bushee, Matthew Cedergren, Jeremy Michels (2020), Does the Media Help or Hurt Retail Investors during the IPO Quiet Period?, Journal of Accounting and Economics, 69 (1). 10.1016/j.jacceco.2019.101261

All Research