Cross-sectional results for overstatement periods (T)
To test whether test firms report less conservatively than control firms during overstatement periods (t ¼T), we estimate
Eq. (2) using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression with cross-sectional data pooled over years. We conduct all OLS
regression tests using standard errors clustered at the year and firm levels (Gow et al., 2010). To match control firms to test
firms, we use the year-end data prior to the overstatement periods based on three different matching methods. In the first
control sample each restatement company is matched to the control company closest in size (total assets). This differs
from GHN (2007) who choose two control companies that are closest in size. We think that one-to-one matching is more
commonly used in prior studies (Kothari et al., 2005; Rogers and Van Buskirk, 2009).9