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Disclosure policy choices under regulatory threat
Author(s) -
Suijs Jeroen,
Wielhouwer Jacco L.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
the rand journal of economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.687
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1756-2171
pISSN - 0741-6261
DOI - 10.1111/1756-2171.12260
Subject(s) - business , voluntary disclosure , information asymmetry , investment (military) , regulatory authority , politics , public economics , microeconomics , economics , accounting , finance , law , political science , public administration
This article shows that firms “voluntarily” increase their disclosures in response to the threat of more stringent disclosure regulations. These disclosures are mostly just sufficient to deter regulation. However, when investment risk is low, both managers and investors might strictly prefer the regulation deterring equilibrium. We further find that in many cases, regulation can only be deterred by asymmetric disclosure behavior of the firms. This suggests that coordination issues and free‐riding may be important reasons why self‐regulation may fail. The results also indicate the importance of considering political pressure and regulatory threats to explain observed symmetric and asymmetric voluntary disclosure behavior.