Economic theory suggests that sometimes the enforcement of insider trading laws may be more important than the existence of these laws. Is that true? I find that at the end of 2022: (1) Insider trading laws exist in most countries; they are not enforced in many countries; (2) firms in countries...

This paper investigates how corporate insiders respond to the initial COVID-19 outbreaks. Using comprehensive insider transaction data from 25 countries, we document a consistent pattern of insider selling during the month after the first COVID-19 case is confirmed in a given country. Insider...

This paper investigates how corporate insiders respond to the initial COVID-19 outbreaks. Using comprehensive insider transaction data from 25 countries, we document a consistent pattern of insider selling during the month after the first COVID-19 case is confirmed in a given country. Insider...

We define a delayed disclosure ratio (DD) as the fraction of 10-Q financial statement items that are withheld at the earlier quarterly earnings announcement. We find that higher DD firms have a greater delay in investor and analyst response to earnings surprises: (i) the fraction of total market...

We examine the consequences of a management earnings forecast regulation implemented in a staggered manner. The regulation substantially increases the directly affected firms' frequency of management forecasts. Nevertheless, approximately 14% of the directly affected firms fail to comply with...

Institutional investors are allowed to delay their disclosures of quarter-end holdings via form 13F for up to 45 days. This forbearance may help protect the institutions from potentially damaging behavior by other traders, in particular from free-riding copycatters and from front-runners. It...

Stock exchanges are the backbone of the financial markets in any country. The stock exchanges act as institutions for resources mobilization for companies and implement the policy agenda of the government through mandatory disclosures. The website is the apparent face of the stock exchanges...

This paper documents that policy uncertainty reduces future stock price crash risk. Our tests show that this negative relation is more pronounced among firms with more short-sale constraints, with no actively traded credit default swap contracts, or with higher firm-level political risks. The...

Consistent with hedge funds trading on privileged information during the wall-crossing period, we document negative abnormal returns and abnormally high short selling in the trading days just prior to the private placements of U.S. convertible bonds, no pre-placement negative abnormal returns...