Regulatory transparency and the alignment of private and public enforcement: Evidence from the public disclosure of SEC comment letters

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Hutton ◽  
Susan Shu ◽  
Xin Zheng
Keyword(s):  
Public Disclosure ◽  
Public Enforcement ◽  
The Public ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Comment Letters

SEC Comment Letters and Insider Sales

2015 ◽  
Vol 91 (2) ◽  
pp. 401-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia M. Dechow ◽  
Alastair Lawrence ◽  
James P. Ryans
Keyword(s):  
Insider Trading ◽  
Normal Level ◽  
Public Disclosure ◽  
Revenue Recognition ◽  
Release Date ◽  
The Public ◽  
Investor Inattention ◽  
Negative Drift ◽  
Comment Letters ◽  
Jel Classifications

ABSTRACT We document that insider trading is significantly higher than normal levels prior to the public disclosure of SEC comment letters relating to revenue recognition. Furthermore, insider trading is triple its normal level for firms with high short positions. We find a small negative return at the comment letter release date and a negative drift in returns of 1 to 5 percent over the next 50 days following the release. We also find that greater pre-disclosure sales are associated with a stronger negative drift. This evidence suggests that insiders appear to benefit from trading prior to revenue recognition comment letters. We investigate whether the delayed price reaction to comment letter releases is due to investor inattention. Consistent with this explanation, we document that comment letters are downloaded infrequently from EDGAR in the days following their public disclosure. JEL Classifications: M41; M48; K42

scholarly journals Approaches to the Management and Policing of Food Safety: The Food Standard Agency’s Regulating Our Future

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-183
Author(s):  
Richard Bradford-Knox ◽  
Kevin Kane ◽  
Simon Neighbour
Keyword(s):  
Food Safety ◽  
Safety Management ◽  
City Council ◽  
Food Hygiene ◽  
Public Enforcement ◽  
The Public ◽  
Food Standards ◽  
Food Standard ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Risk Reducing

This paper forms part of an ongoing project studying various approaches to the management of hazards and risk in the food industry with implications for other areas of risk management where cooperation and collaboration between organisations are of a potential benefit. In this paper we give particular focus to the Food Standard Agency’s proposed <i>Regulating Our Future</i> that requires closer cooperation and collaboration between the public enforcement authorities and the industry organisations that police food hygiene and food safety management. The forming of a Primary Authority between Cornwall Council and Safe and Local Supplier Approval (SALSA) emerged as a potential means of contributing to this by improving trust between all parties involved, sharing of information, assessing risk, reducing inspection times and frequency of inspections from Primary Authority. Attention is given to the current relationship between the various organisations involved from the perspectives and viewpoints of Local Authority Enforcement Officers from Preston City Council, Cornwall Council and SALSA and other experienced food safety professionals. The research is qualitative and grounded, including a review of the extant literature and interviews with food safety and food standards professionals from the private and public enforcement sectors.

STRATEGY OF LIBERALIZATION AND PROBLEMS OF STATE REGULATION OF AZERBAIJAN ECONOMY

2019 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 139-151
Author(s):  
G. Z. Yuzbashieva ◽  
A. M. Mustafayev ◽  
R. A. Imanov
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
State Regulation ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
The Public ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Sectoral Development ◽  
Market Relations

The indicators that determine the change in the macroeconomic situation in the economy of Azerbaijan in 2010–2017, as well as the conditions for increasing the effectiveness of state intervention in solving economic problems are analyzed. It is noted that it is not the size of the public sector that becomes important, but its qualitative component (management and redistribution of resources and revenues, coordination of government intervention in economic relations). The main reasons limiting economic growth are identified, and the mechanisms for overcoming them are disclosed, since economic growth is of particular importance in the transformational period of state development. It substantiates the assertion that the forms and methods of state regulation should be the result of a reasonable combination of the private and public sectors of the economy to more effectively achieve the goal of economic development of the country and increase the welfare of the population. To this end, it is advisable to limit the actions of market forces and find a rational ratio of market and government measures that stimulate economic growth and development.It is shown that in the near future the development of the economy of Azerbaijan should be focused on the transition to the integration of various models of economic transformation; at the same time, “attraction of investments” should be carried out by methods of stimulating consumption, and the concept of a socially oriented economy, which the state also implements, should prevail, thereby ensuring social protection of the population and at the same time developing market relations. Disproportions in regional and sectoral development are also noted, which are the result of an ineffective distribution of goods produced, inadequate investment in human capital, a low level of coordination and stimulation of economic growth and development.

Real Earnings Management before and after Reporting SOX 404 Material Weaknesses

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuukka Järvinen ◽  
Emma-Riikka Myllymäki
Keyword(s):  
Earnings Management ◽  
Internal Control ◽  
Internal Controls ◽  
Real Earnings Management ◽  
Public Disclosure ◽  
High Quality ◽  
The Public ◽  
Material Weaknesses ◽  
Internal Control System ◽  
Before And After

SYNOPSIS The purpose of this study is to investigate whether SOX Section 404 material weaknesses manifest in real earnings management behavior. The empirical findings indicate that, compared to companies with effective internal controls, companies with existing material weaknesses in their internal controls engage in more manipulation of real activities (particularly inventory overproduction). This implies that the weak commitment by management to provide effective internal control system and high-quality financial information relates to a tendency to use real earnings management methods. Moreover, we find evidence suggesting that companies employ real earnings management (overproduction and reduction of discretionary expenses) after disclosing previous year's material weaknesses. We conjecture that the public disclosure of material weaknesses induces management to strive to mitigate the expected negative reactions of stakeholders to the disclosure by engaging in real earnings management, which is not easily detected or constrained by outsiders. Overall, this study suggests that material weaknesses in internal controls signal an environment where management is more inclined to employ real earnings management.

The Development of Auditing Standards at the PCAOB and Related Audit Practitioner Input

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Tyler Williams ◽  
W. Mark Wilder
Keyword(s):  
Standard Setting ◽  
The Public ◽  
Setting Process ◽  
Public Company ◽  
Auditing Standards ◽  
Audit Standard ◽  
Comment Letters ◽  
Feedback Responses

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB; Board) maintains that constituent feedback plays an essential and dynamic role in its audit standard-setting process. We examine a major source of constituent feedback, responses to standard-setting questions, using a sample drawn from the original proposals of fourteen PCAOB auditing standards. We find that after receiving comment letter feedback to the standard-setting questions, the Board revises approximately half of its guidance tied to those questions before it finalizes auditing standards-a finding consistent with the Board's assertion that it carefully considers constituent perspectives as it develops new regulation. We also explore the related comment letters of eight professional auditing firms subject to the PCAOB's annual inspection program and discover varying levels of opposition to and support for the PCAOB's proposed authoritative guidance. We observe PCAOB revision to authoritative guidance highly contested by the firms in more than three-fourths of cases of standard-setting questions and PCAOB non-revision to guidance highly supported by the firms in more than ninety percent of cases.

A Web without a Center

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Knaack
Keyword(s):  
Regulatory Network ◽  
Financial Stability ◽  
Public Governance ◽  
The Public ◽  
Otc Derivatives ◽  
Unilateral Action ◽  
Regulatory Cooperation ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Legal Barriers ◽  
Global Data

G20 leaders vowed to collect and share OTC derivatives trade data so that regulators can obtain a global picture of market and risk evolution. This chapter employs a network perspective to explain why they have failed to meet this commitment to date. It examines three networks: the OTC derivatives market itself, and those of its private and public governance. The analysis shows that the Financial Stability Board (FSB), the public supervisory entity, struggles to establish itself at the center of the global regulatory network. It failed to act as a first mover in setting global trade identification standards (legal entity identifiers), and it has not been able to establish a core of global data warehouses. This is largely the result of unilateral action by FSB members. In particular, legislators in member countries have undermined FSB-led efforts by refusing to remove legal barriers to transnational regulatory cooperation and, in some instances, by erecting new ones.

Social versus Private Insurance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Pestieau ◽  
Mathieu Lefebvre
Keyword(s):  
Social Insurance ◽  
Private Insurance ◽  
Population Ageing ◽  
Fiscal Competition ◽  
Public Insurance ◽  
The Public ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
The Family ◽  
Private And Public

This chapter looks at the role of the public versus the private sector in the provision of insurance against social risks. After having discussed the evolution of the role of the family as support in the first place, the specificity of social insurance is emphasized in opposition to private insurance. Figures show the extent of spending on both private and public insurance and the chapter presents economic reasons to why the latter is more developed than the former. Issues related to moral hazard and adverse selection are addressed. The chapter also discusses somewhat more general arguments supporting social insurance such as population ageing, unemployment, fiscal competition and social dumping.

The Public

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Holt
Keyword(s):  
Jürgen Habermas ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Jurgen Habermas ◽  
Public Nature ◽  
Private And Public

The chapter continues to discuss the association of judgment and sovereignty using Franz Kafka’s story Das Urteil (The Judgment). It does so in order to then introduce the public nature of spectating and how this has been played out in the thinking of Jurgen Habermas concerning speech situations, and in Hannah Arendt’s writings on the polis. Rather than pitch the public in contrast to the private, the chapter suggests spectating plays on the binary in ways that enrich both. This coming together of the private and public is then woven into the understanding of strategic inquiry as an organizational forming of self-presentation.

Private and Public Law

2020 ◽  
pp. 574-592
Author(s):  
Thomas W. Merrill
Keyword(s):  
Law And Economics ◽  
Public Law ◽  
Private Law ◽  
General Criterion ◽  
The Public ◽  
Private Ordering ◽  
Public Rights ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Derivatives Of

This chapter explores the relationship between private and public law. In civil law countries, the public-private distinction serves as an organizing principle of the entire legal system. In common law jurisdictions, the distinction is at best an implicit design principle and is used primarily as an informal device for categorizing different fields of law. Even if not explicitly recognized as an organizing principle, however, it is plausible that private and public law perform distinct functions. Private law supplies the tools that make private ordering possible—the discretionary decisions that individuals make in structuring their lives. Public law is concerned with providing public goods—broadly defined—that cannot be adequately supplied by private ordering. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, various schools of thought derived from utilitarianism have assimilated both private and public rights to the same general criterion of aggregate welfare analysis. This has left judges with no clear conception of the distinction between private and public law. Another problematic feature of modern legal thought is a curious inversion in which scholars who focus on fields of private law have turned increasingly to law and economics, one of the derivatives of utilitarianism, whereas scholars who concern themselves with public law are increasingly drawn to new versions of natural rights thinking, in the form of universal human rights.

Write–Reach–Repeat

2020 ◽  
pp. 1083-1093
Author(s):  
Robin M. Boylorn
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Future ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter considers the role, importance, and impact of public intellectualism on the future of qualitative research. The chapter argues that the move toward technology and the public dissemination of information via the internet requires a shift in how and what we research with an expressed intention of reaching a broader and nonacademic audience. The chapter considers the relationship between the private and public sphere, and the so-called “bastardization” of intellectualism to explain the role and rise of public intellectualism in qualitative research. By considering issues such as personal subjectivity, accountability, representation, and epistemological privilege, the chapter discusses how public contexts inform qualitative research and, conversely, how qualitative research can inform the public.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document