Have Estimates of Cost Stickiness Changed Across Listing Cohorts?
Forthcoming, Journal of Management Control
30 Pages Posted: 10 May 2017 Last revised: 28 Feb 2018
Date Written: February 22, 2018
Abstract
While the discussion of changes in financial accounting properties over time is already well-established, there is a lack of evidence whether changing firm compositions in empirical samples might bias cost stickiness research. We document that with each additional listing cohort, the U.S. public firm universe becomes more knowledge-intensive and, at the same time, more cost sticky. Higher reliance on temporary labor by newer listing cohorts partly mitigates this development. Our results call for the use of listing cohort-specific slopes to allow for cohort-specific estimates of cost stickiness in future research.
Keywords: Asymmetric Cost Behavior; Listing Cohorts; Adjustment Costs
JEL Classification: D22, M41
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation