The Dodd-Frank Act allows the SEC to choose either an internal administrative proceeding or a federal district court as an enforcement venue for resolving violations of federal securities laws. I first document that the SEC increased the use of administrative proceedings after Dodd-Frank. I next...

Employing the SEC Tick Size Pilot Program that increases the minimum trading unit of a set of randomly selected small-capitalization stocks, we examine whether and how an exogenous change in stock liquidity affects corporate voluntary disclosure. Using difference-in-differences analyses with...

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...

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 effect of SEC regulations on firm valuations and corporate policies over the past 50 years. I build a time-varying and industry-specific measure of SEC regulatory restrictions, based on the universe of effective SEC rules and machine-learning relevance of the regulations...

In addition to regulation of securities market issuers, the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) is also responsible for regulation of those entities that provide the networks, either electronic or physical, that enable the functioning of our securities markets. On February 9, 2022, the...

This study uses equal-weighted portfolios of financial and non-financial SEC registrants to examine the market reaction to proposed SEC short-term borrowing disclosure regulation. Using event study methodology and two event dates -- that is, announcement and voting dates -- we find that the...

The Dodd-Frank Act was signed into law on July 21, 2010 (DFA 2010). The Act extended the role and protection of whistleblowers by providing awards to whistleblowers who gave relevant information to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission...

Under SEC Rule 14a-8, shareholders have the right to petition management to include a topic for vote on the annual proxy statement. In response, management may request no-action relief from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) staff to exclude unwelcome proposals. Using a sample of 3,040...

One key challenge of regulatory oversight is information asymmetry between the regulator and the regulated. We investigate this issue through a unique setting in which the SEC uses firms’ voluntary disclosures to bridge the information gap during their periodic reviews of mandatory...