The rise of shale gas and tight oil development has triggered a major debate about hydraulic fracturing (HF). In an effort to mitigate risks from HF, especially with respect to water quality, many U.S. states have introduced disclosure mandates for HF wells and fracturing fluids. We use this...

This paper investigates the impact of disclosure regulation on import competition. Using the segment disclosure regulation (SFAS 131) as a plausibly exogenous shock that increases the supply of mandatory information about U.S. product markets, I uncover an increase in U.S. import competition at...

We examine whether (and to what extent) accounting regulation intended to improve disclosure can lead to higher disclosure quality in the absence of a change in preparer incentives. We exploit a sequence of two similar regulatory changes, one under US GAAP and the other under IFRS, which have...

This study examines the unintended effects of a pre-Reg FD practice that gave a broad group of sophisticated market participants 15-minute earlier access to all corporate press releases than the general public. We find that this priority dissemination practice contributed to 22 percent of the...

Prior studies identify several motives for why firms release management earnings forecasts (MFs). A common feature of such studies is they pool MFs when drawing inferences about a specific motive. By ignoring the heterogeneous rationales managers have to issue MFs, pooling could lead to biased...

The 1964 Securities Acts Amendments extended the mandatory disclosure requirements that had applied to listed firms since 1934 to large firms traded Over-the-Counter (OTC). We find several pieces of evidence indicating that investors valued these disclosure requirements, two of which are...

At a time when distrust of corporate management is at an all-time high and the media are increasing their focus on corporate governance, Standard amp; Poor's has published a study that examines the transparency and disclosure (Tamp;D) practices of major public companies around the globe. This...

The 1964 Securities Acts Amendments extended the mandatory disclosure requirements that had applied to listed firms since 1934 to large firms traded Over-the-Counter (OTC). We find several pieces of evidence indicating that investors valued these disclosure requirements, two of which are...

Foreign companies listing on U.S. exchanges are required to report financial information under U.S. GAAP on Form 20-F using either Item 17 or Item 18 disclosure rules. These two disclosure rules differ in that Item 17 allows many exemptions from U.S. GAAP, while Item 18 requires disclosure of...

This is one of the first large-scale studies to examine the voluntary disclosure practices of foreign firms cross-listed in the United States. We proxy for voluntary disclosure using three attributes of firms' management earnings guidance: (1) the likelihood of issuance; (2) the frequency of...