【讲座时间】2026年6月2日 14:00
【讲座地点】会计学院108室
【讲座主题】Discrepancies Between Company-Reported and Compustat-Assigned SIC Codes
【嘉宾介绍】Guang Ma，Rutgers University
Guang Ma is Associate Professor of Accounting and Information Systems and Director of the Master of Accountancy in Accounting & Analytics Program at Rutgers Business School. He previously served on the faculty of McGill University and the National University of Singapore. He earned his Ph.D. in Management Science (Accounting and Information Management) from the University of Texas at Dallas, and holds Master's and Bachelor's degrees from Peking University.
His research examines corporate disclosure, financial analysts, financial regulation, and the application of machine learning and generative AI to capital markets and corporate decision-making. His work has appeared in The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Review of Accounting Studies, and Contemporary Accounting Research, where he also serves on the editorial board. He currently chairs the AI/Big Data Track for the 2026 AAA Global Connect.
【内容提要】
The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code that a firm uses in its SEC EDGAR filings often differs from the code assigned by Compustat. Using 96,240 firm-year observations of U.S. public firms from 1996 through 2024, we find that the two sources disagree for 34.3% of firm-years, with disagreement increasing at every level of the SIC hierarchy since 1996. We observe that disagreement is concentrated among firms operating across multiple segments, undergoing mergers or restructuring, or relying heavily on (acquired) intangible assets. When the two sources place a firm in different sectors, stock returns comove more strongly with Compustat peers, consistent with Compustat's revenue-based classification capturing the firm's sector-wide exposures. When the two sources agree on the broad sector but disagree on narrow industries, returns comove more strongly with EDGAR peers, consistent with managers having private information about the firm's closest competitors. Our findings suggest that disagreement on the SIC code between EDGAR and Compustat is a valuable economic signal.
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