The Attributes of a Costly Recall: Evidence from the Automotive Industry

While researchers have extensively documented the equity response to product recalls and subsequent shareholder losses, less attention in the literature has been given to examining the damaging recall attributes. Using 1973–1998 automotive safety recall data, this study identifies the kinds of recalls that cause significant shareholder losses. After constructing an equally-weighted automotive market index to control for industry effects and adjusting the abnormal returns to account for the degree of surprise in the recall announcement, the study estimates both percentage and real dollar abnormal returns. We find that the indirect costs of automotive recalls are likely larger than the direct costs.