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Full-Text Articles in Business

Shareholder Litigation And Corporate Disclosure: Evidence From Derivative Lawsuits, Thomas Bourveau, Yun Lou, Rencheng Wang Jun 2018

Shareholder Litigation And Corporate Disclosure: Evidence From Derivative Lawsuits, Thomas Bourveau, Yun Lou, Rencheng Wang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Using the staggered adoption of universal demand (UD) laws in the United States, we study the effect of shareholder litigation risk on corporate disclosure. We find that disclosure significantly increases after UD laws make it more difficult to file derivative lawsuits. Specifically, firms issue more earnings forecasts and voluntary 8-K filings, and increase the length of management discussion and analysis (MD&A) in their 10-K filings. We further assess the direct and indirect channels through which UD laws affect firms' disclosure policies. We find that the effect of UD laws on corporate disclosure is driven by firms facing relatively higher ex …


Individual Lawyers, The Sec Revolving Door, And Comment Letters, Michael Shen, Teck Meng Junior Tan Jun 2018

Individual Lawyers, The Sec Revolving Door, And Comment Letters, Michael Shen, Teck Meng Junior Tan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Government officials, advocacy groups, and the business press have raised concerns thatformer SEC employees may continue to influence the SEC after leaving the agency. Usinga hand-collected database of individual lawyers that represent firms in responding to SECcomment letters, we examine the impact of individual lawyers, and lawyers formerly employedby the SEC, on the comment letter process. We document significant differencesbetween lawyers and law firms in their clients’ resistance to SEC comment letters, and findthat firms that retain former SEC employees are larger, more profitable, and more likely tohave received a comment letter raising accounting issues. After matching on lawyer, commentletter, …


Accounting Choices And The Legal Environment: The Impact Of The Ex Post Loss Rule, Teck Meng Junior Tan Jun 2018

Accounting Choices And The Legal Environment: The Impact Of The Ex Post Loss Rule, Teck Meng Junior Tan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Using a landmark Supreme Court decision as a natural experiment, I examine the impact of a fundamental requirement in securities litigation, the ex post loss rule, on income-decreasing accounting choices. Dura Pharmaceuticals v. Broudo (2005) established that plaintiffs must show that the alleged misrepresentations caused an actual economic loss. The case resolved a circuit split, allowing me to identify a treatment jurisdiction affected by Dura, and control jurisdictions in which the rule was already the prevailing legal standard. Motivated by legal analyses suggesting that Dura incentivizes firms to delay negative corrections, I hypothesize and find that treatment firms in high-litigation …


Reframing The Board Diversity Issue: Set 25 By 25 Target, Themin Suwardy, Surianarayanan Gopalakrishnan Feb 2018

Reframing The Board Diversity Issue: Set 25 By 25 Target, Themin Suwardy, Surianarayanan Gopalakrishnan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Studies have shown there is clear association between aboard's gender diversity and company performance. Yet Singapore has been softerthan usual in pushing the agenda. In this commentary, the authors discussed theimportance of setting an explicit hard target with a fixed deadline to reframeboard diversity in Singapore.