The Dodd-Frank Act ushers in a new era of whistleblower law. Congress, for the first time, is rewarding the providers … of “independent analysis” that helps the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) prosecute fraud. To receive a bounty … under section 922(a) of the Dodd-Frank Act, “independent knowledge” of fraud is not required. While the statute recognizes …

We examine the deterrence effect of whistleblower laws on accounting fraud. We exploit state False Claims Acts (FCAs … auditing being a mechanism by which whistleblowing exposure lowers fraud risk. Finally, we find the introduction of the Dodd …-Frank whistleblower provision in 2011 reduced the probability of accounting fraud to a greater extent for firms that had not been affected …

The SEC whistleblower bounty program's effectiveness in increasing external reports of illegal acts suggests that … employers might increase internal whistleblowing by offering monetary awards. We propose and test a model that explores how … monetary incentives affect trust, and ultimately whistleblowing intent, in both high and low retaliation threat environments …