Publications

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16 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

Private Meetings of Public Companies Thwart Disclosure Rules

In the fall of, the US Securities and Exchange Commission issued a new rule meant to combat the problem of selective disclosure among public companies and their favorite investors. Regulation Fair View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Financial Services

March 2015
Case

Statoil: Transparency on Payments to Governments

By: George Serafeim

The Statoil case describes the challenge of increasing transparency, in extractive industries, around host county government payments. The case describes Statoil's reasoning behind voluntarily disclosing host country government payments, and the events that led to this... View Details

Keywords: Corruption; Disclosure; Disclosure Strategy; Regulation; Industry Self-regulation; Corporate Governance; Corporate Accountability; Bribery; Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility; Government Legislation; Cost vs Benefits; Corporate Disclosure; Mining; Mining Industry; United States

10 Aug 2015
Research & Ideas

Why a Federal Rule on CEO Pay Disclosure May Get You In Trouble With Customers

remember thinking, oh, that must just be my dad; he must be the only person who cares about that." The Dodd-frank Requirement Fast-forward to 2010, when the US Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. A response to the Great... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail

July 2021
Article

Material Sustainability Information and Stock Price Informativeness

By: Jody Grewal, Clarissa Hauptmann and George Serafeim

As part of the SEC’s revision of Regulation S-K, many investors proposed the mandatory disclosure of sustainability information in the form of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data. However, progress is contingent on collecting evidence regarding which... View Details

Keywords: Voluntary Disclosure; Accounting Standards; Sustainability; Nonfinancial Information; Corporate Social Responsibility; Stock Price Informativeness; Synchronicity; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Disclosure; Corporate Accountability; Stocks; Price; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Accounting; Standards

SSRN

October 2022
Background Note

Note on Cyberattacks and Regulatory Regimes

By: Frank Nagle, George A. Riedel, William R. Kerr and David Lane

Describes common types of cyberattacks on enterprises and their costs, as well as the fragmentary regulatory regimes through which U.S. states and regulatory agencies at the start of 2021 attempted to encourage disclosure of cyberattacks and to pursue enforcement... View Details

Keywords: Regulations; Regulatory Agencies; Cyberattacks; Governance; Corporate Disclosure; Cybersecurity; Information Industry; Information Technology Industry; Health Industry; Financial Services Industry; United States

October 2018 (Revised September 2022)
Case

Stock-Based Compensation at Twitter

By: Jonas Heese, Zeya Yang and Mike Young

Olivia Nash, an analyst at leading hedge fund BlueShark Capital Management, had just finished listening to the hour-long earnings call for Twitter’s Q4 2017 results. Was Twitter doing well? That depended on which numbers she chose to believe. According to Generally... View Details

Keywords: Twitter; Non-GAAP Disclosure; Stock-based Compensation; Earnings Management; Corporate Disclosure; Compensation and Benefits; Stocks; Measurement and Metrics

Spring 2012
Article

The Need for Sector-Specific Materiality and Sustainability Reporting Standards

By: Robert G. Eccles, Michael P. Krzus, Jean Rogers and George Serafeim

Even though the supply of sustainability information has increased considerably in the last decade, companies are still failing to disclose material information in a comparable format. We believe this has two downsides. On the one hand, companies are not adequately... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Reporting; Standard Setting; Regulation; Environmental Sustainability; Accounting; Standards; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Corporate Disclosure; Competitive Advantage; Capital Markets; Accounting Industry; United States

Research Summary

Overview

Abigail's research to date has focused on the financial accounting standard setting process. Specifically, her current projects investigate the impacts of regulator backgrounds, constituent preferences, and lobbying incentives in the determination of US GAAP. Her... View Details

Keywords: Financial Accounting; Political Economy; Capital Markets; Fair Value Accounting; Disclosure; International Accounting Standards

February 2017 (Revised June 2017)
Case

ExxonMobil: Business as Usual? (A)

By: George Serafeim, Shiva Rajgopal and David Freiberg

Climate change was becoming an important societal and business issue as more governments were introducing climate change related regulations and investors became increasibly worried about stranded assets within oil and gas firms. In September 2016, the U.S. Securities... View Details

Keywords: Oil ＆ Gas; Oil Prices; Oil Companies; Asset Impairment; Predictive Analytics; Sustainability; Environmental Impact; Innovation; Disclosure; Accounting; Valuation; Climate Change; Renewable Energy; Environmental Sustainability; Financial Reporting; Energy Industry

02 Oct 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Is Mandatory Nonfinancial Performance Measurement Beneficial?

Keywords: by Susanna Gallani, Takehisha Kajiwara & Ranjani Krishnan; Health

Article

Is ‘Not Guilty’ the Same as ‘Innocent’? Evidence from SEC Financial Fraud Investigations

By: Eugene F. Soltes and David H. Solomon

When the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigates firms for financial fraud, investors learn about the investigation only if managers disclose it, or regulators sanction the firm. We investigate the effects of such disclosures using confidential records on... View Details

Keywords: Financial Fraud; Corporate Disclosure; Performance; Outcome or Result

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17 May 2010
Research & Ideas

What Brazil Teaches About Investor Protection

corporate standards in Brazil improved enormously, not only because the regulator became tougher and introduced more transparent disclosure standards, but also because there was a big movement to improve... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Banking; Financial Services

27 Mar 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 27, 2018

having the most material ESG issues, as well as investors anticipating proprietary and political costs as a result of the mandated disclosures. Overall, the results are consistent with the equity market perceiving that this disclosure... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 Jan 2023
Research & Ideas

Are Companies Actually Greener—or Are They All Talk?

Most companies now account for social good in their financial reports in some way, but with regulation scattershot and evolving, it’s complicated for investors to assess so-called ESG reports. The disclosures, known as Environmental, Social, and Governance reports,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

May 2014
Article

Incorporating Field Data into Archival Research

By: Eugene F. Soltes

I explore the use of field data in conjunction with archival evidence by examining Iliev, Miller, and Roth's (2014) analysis of an amendment to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. This regulatory amendment allowed depositary banks to cross-list firms without the... View Details

Keywords: Analytics and Data Science; Research; Financial Reporting

SSRN

Article

Value of New Performance Information in Healthcare: Evidence from Japan

By: Susanna Gallani, Takehisa Kajiwara and Ranjani Krishnan

Mandatory measurement and disclosure of outcome measures are commonly used policy tools in healthcare. The effectiveness of such disclosures relies on the extent to which the new information produced by the mandatory system is internalized by the healthcare... View Details

Keywords: Value Of Information; Feedback; Patient Satisfaction; Healthcare; Health Care and Treatment; Satisfaction; Information; Measurement and Metrics; Performance Improvement

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September 2012 (Revised November 2012)
Case

Integrated Reporting in South Africa

This case presents a 20-year history of the evolution of corporate governance and corporate reporting in South Africa starting in 1992 with a focus on the three King codes of corporate governance (King I in 1994, King II in 2000, and King III in 2009). From a reporting... View Details

Keywords: Integrated Reporting; Sustainability Reporting; Stock Exchanges; South Africa; Corporate Reporting; Regulation; Nonfinancial Performance; History; Corporate Disclosure; Markets; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Performance; Corporate Governance; South Africa