Whistleblowers are ostensibly a valuable resource to regulators investigating securities violations, but whether there is a link between whistleblower involvement and the outcomes of enforcement actions is unclear. Using a dataset of employee whistleblowing allegations obtained from the U.S....

We examine whether a shock to the enforceability of Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD) limited its ability to restrict the flow of private information between managers and investors. Prior work provides evidence that Reg FD reduced managers' selective disclosure of material information...

Spanish Abstract: Uno de los temas que genera controversia en el ámbito fiscal en México, es la no proporcionalidad y equidad de la contribución al gasto público, que va en contra del artículo 31, fracción IV, de la Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos, que establece que...

The SEC mandates firms to inform investors about their assessment of future contingencies in their 10 Ks. However lengthy and complex disclosures – mostly for dozens of firms in an investor’s portfolio – can barely be processed by a human being. To cope with the flood of information, we...

At the beginning of the 1990s UK accounting standards were described as a ‘laughing stock’. By the millennium they were widely acclaimed and in some respects world-leading. This paper explores some of the key technical advances in this period, and the political processes employed to secure...

We exploit the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision of Kokesh v. SEC [2017] as a unique identification strategy to investigate the value of securities law enforcement. The Kokesh decision was an unanticipated legal change that limits the SEC's ability to impose disgorgement—its most potent...

This study examines the challenge of implicit communication -- qualitative statements, tone, and non-verbal cues -- to the effectiveness of enforcing corporate disclosure regulation. We use a Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD) setting, given that the SEC adopted the regulation recognizing that...

KPMG's discussion of Bribery and Corruption as a Key Audit Matter (KAM) in the Extended Auditor's Reports (EAR) of Rolls-Royce for 2013-2015 is examined as implying limitations on EARs in general. The KAM for Bribery and Corruption was apparently written in view of the company's legal interests...

We propose and find that enhanced regulatory transparency facilitates alignment between private and public enforcement. Utilizing the SEC's 2004 decision to publicly disclose its comment letters, we explore the actions of a public enforcer (the SEC) and a private enforcer (shareholder...

This paper investigates (1) whether the corporate governance of firms with erroneous financial reporting differs systematically from that of non-error firms and (2) whether error detection is followed by improvements in the corporate governance of error firms. I apply a difference-in-differences...