Financial Restatements and the Demand for Trade Credit

Abstract

This paper is the first to study the relation between financial restatements and restatement firms’ demand for trade credit as a source of financing. Using a sample of U.S.- listed firms for the 2000–2016 period, we find that restatement firms tend to use more trade credit in the year following the restatement disclosure year than do non-restatement firms. Moreover, we find evidence that restatement firms use trade credit to substitute for the reduced reliance on short- and long-term loans. Our further analysis reveals that restatement firms can obtain more trade credit when the firms promptly change the CEOs as a signal for firms’ attempt to repair damaged organizational legitimacy. Taken together, our findings suggest that restatement firms experiencing difficulties in obtaining conventional borrowings tend to resort to trade credit as an alternative source of financing.

Keywords: Financial restatement, financing source, trade credit, supplier financing, substitute for loan