When you talk, I remain silent: Spillover effects of peers' mandatory disclosures on firms' voluntary disclosures

We predict and find that regulated firms' mandatory disclosures crowd out unregulated firms' voluntary disclosures. Consistent with information spillovers from regulated to unregulated firms, we document that unregulated firms reduce their own disclosures in the presence of regulated firms' disclosures. We further find that unregulated firms reduce their disclosures more the greater the strength of the regulatory information spillovers. Our findings suggest that a substitutive relationship between regulated and unregulated firms' disclosures attenuates the effect of disclosure regulation on the market-wide information environment.

Comparing the Cybersecurity Risk Disclosures of US and Foreign Firms

This study explores the cybersecurity risk disclosure differences between foreign firms listed in the US and US firms. We first extract cybersecurity risks disclosures text with a Python program based on a list of cybersecurity key words. We then perform textual analysis of the cybersecurity risk disclosures in foreign firms’ 20-F filings and US firms’ 10-K filings. During our study period, we observe that foreign firms disclose more about their cybersecurity risks and their disclosures are more readable than US firms. Foreign firms also use more numbers, fewer uncertainty words and fewer litigious language than their US counterparts. In general, our study suggests that cybersecurity risk disclosures made by foreign firms are clearer and more specific than those made by US firms. This finding could have implications for disclosure regulation and home bias research.

Modern Slavery Disclosure Regulation and Global Supply Chains: Insights from Stakeholder Narratives on the UK Modern Slavery Act

The purpose of this article is to problematise a particular social transparency and disclosure regulation in the UK, that transcend national boundaries in order to control (modern) slavery in supply chains operating in the developing world. Drawing on notions from the regulatory and sociology literature, i.e. transparency and normativity, and by interviewing anti-slavery activists and experts, this study explores the limitations of the disclosure and transparency requirements of the UK Modern Slavery Act and, more specifically, how anti-slavery activists experience and interpret the new regulations and the regulators’ implementation of the regulation. This research found limited confidence among anti-slavery activists regarding the Act’s call for transparency in relation to the elimination of slavery from global supply chains. The research also found that the limits of the transparency provisions within the Act appear to hinder the attainment of normativity. This study provides new and unique insights into the critical role that social activists play in exposing the lack of corporate transparency and failures of responsibility to protect workers within global supply chains.

Performance Of Auto-Callable Reverse Convertibles, Information Disclosure Prescribed By Regulation S-K Change In 2013 Under U.S. Security Act: An Empirical Study

This thesis studies the effect of the estimated value disclosure imposed in 2013 on the realized return of the auto-callable reverse convertibles (ACRCs) in the U.S. retail market. The sample of this study consists of about 3,700 issues of ACRCs during the period from 2011 to 2015, which is collected from the Edgar database of the U.S. Security and Exchange Committee (www.sec.gov). The comparison between product realized return and the return of underlying assets reveals that the ACRCs are underperformed by 5% on average, while further analysis shows that the return difference was broadened after the disclosure regulation. It is found that the statistical attributes of the underlying assets are critical to the product performance while they are hidden by the issuer of ACRCs. The disclosure regulation is presumed to enhance information disclosure and to further protect the investors, but the deteriorated performance of ACRCs indicates a failure of the regulation. To protect the anonymity and confidentiality, the identity of the issuer of ACRCs in our sample is removed without compromising the validity of our research. The original data is available upon request.

Performance Of Auto-Callable Reverse Convertibles, Information Disclosure Prescribed By Regulation S-K Change In 2013 Under U.S. Security Act: An Empirical Study

This thesis studies the effect of the estimated value disclosure imposed in 2013 on the realized return of the auto-callable reverse convertibles (ACRCs) in the U.S. retail market. The sample of this study consists of about 3,700 issues of ACRCs during the period from 2011 to 2015, which is collected from the Edgar database of the U.S. Security and Exchange Committee (www.sec.gov). The comparison between product realized return and the return of underlying assets reveals that the ACRCs are underperformed by 5% on average, while further analysis shows that the return difference was broadened after the disclosure regulation. It is found that the statistical attributes of the underlying assets are critical to the product performance while they are hidden by the issuer of ACRCs. The disclosure regulation is presumed to enhance information disclosure and to further protect the investors, but the deteriorated performance of ACRCs indicates a failure of the regulation. To protect the anonymity and confidentiality, the identity of the issuer of ACRCs in our sample is removed without compromising the validity of our research. The original data is available upon request.