We investigate whether and to what extent publicly listed corporations voluntarily comply with and disclose recommended good corporate governance (CG) practices, and distinctively examine whether the observed cross-sectional differences in such CG disclosures can be explained by ownership and...

Worldwide, primary corporate bond markets have become an increasingly important source of financing for non-financial companies. This trend is coupled with a relative decrease in traditional bank lending to non-financial companies and low levels of bond interest rates. Just as shareholders,...

This paper examines the optimal design and consequences of financial disclosure regulation. Our model represents the regulation as creating a real option for an investor to delay investment until information is disclosed. We find conditions on investment opportunities that ensure that regulation...

I exploit variation in the adoption of disclosure and supervisory regulation across U.S. states to examine their impact on the development and stability of commercial banks. The empirical results suggest that the adoption of state‐level requirements to report financial statements in local...

To date, readers of financial statements are not able to identify speculation as risk-increasing activity from public corporate disclosures. We examine a unique regulatory environment, in which the regulating authority recommends additional FX-disclosures in excess of prevailing reporting...

We examine the effects of mandatory ESG disclosure around the world using a novel dataset. Mandatory ESG disclosure increases the availability and quality of ESG reporting, especially among firms with low ESG performance. Mandatory ESG reporting has in turn beneficial effects on firm’s...

The U.S. securities markets have recently undergone (or are undergoing) three fundamental transitions: (1) institutionalization (with the result that institutional investors now dominate both trading and stock ownership); (2) extraordinary ownership concentration (with the consequence that the...

This paper studies the effects of the mandatory implementation of a more informative disclosure regime on firms’ financial constraints and investment policies. I run a difference-in-difference analysis and find that firms moving from a voluntary use of the regime to a mandatory use increase...

This paper investigates the causal effects of voluntary information disclosures on a bank's expected default probability, enterprise risk, and value. I measure disclosure via a self-constructed index for the largest 80 U.S. bank holding companies for the period 1998-2011. I provide evidence that...

The 2007/2008 global financial crisis has reignited the debate regarding the need for effective corporate governance (CG) through sound risk management and reporting practices. This paper, therefore, examines the crucial question of whether the quality of firm-level CG has any effect on the...