Public enforcement of securities market rules: Resource-based evidence from the Securities and Exchange Commission

We empirically investigate whether increases in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) budget have an effect on firms’ compliance behavior with securities market rules. Our study uses a dataset on the SEC's resources and its enforcement actions over a period beginning shortly after the Second World War and ending in 2010. We find that increases in the SEC's resources both improve compliance and lead to an increased activity level of the SEC. The higher level of compliance is reflected by a decrease in the numbers of enforcement cases. The increased activity level is reflected by a surge in the number of investigations conducted by the SEC.