Earnings management and the underperformance of seasoned equity offerings11We thank Brad Barber (the referee), Randy Beatty, Vic Bernard, K.C. Chan, Kent Daniel, M. DeFond, Laura Field, David Heike, Chuan Yang Hwang, Jonathan Karpoff, S.P. Kothari, Charles Lee, Wayne Mikkelson (the editor), Tim Opler, Krishna Palepu, K. Ramesh, Jay Ritter, Terry Shevlin, Doug Skinner, Sheridan Titman, Ross Watts, Jerry Zimmerman, and seminar participants at the University of California Finance and Accounting Conference (Davis, March 1995), the NBER Corporate Finance Conference (Boston, August 1995), the Center for Research in Security Prices Seminar (Chicago, October 1995), the American Finance Association Conference (San Francisco, 1996), the American Accounting Association Conference (Chicago, August 1996), the University of Michigan, and the University of Rochester for helpful comments and discussions.