Mandatory Versus Voluntary Disclosure in Markets with Informed and Uninformed Customers

Numerous rules mandate the disclosure of sellers' information.This article analyzes two questions regarding disclosure: (i)Why wouldn't sellers voluntarily disclose their information?and (ii) Who gains and who loses with mandatory disclosure?Previous analyses assume that all customers are knowledgeableenough to understand a seller's disclosure, and a key resultis that there is no role for mandatory disclosure. Either voluntarydisclosure is forthcoming, or if it is not, no one prefers mandatorydisclosure. We generalize the standard model by consideringthe case in which not all customers understand a seller's disclosure.We show that if the fraction of customers who can understanda disclosure is too low, voluntary disclosure may not be forthcoming.If so, mandatory disclosure benefits informed customers, isneutral for uninformed customers, and harms the seller. Ourresults suggest that we should find mandatory disclosure inmarkets where product information is relatively difficult tounderstand.     

To disclose or not? An analysis of software user behavior

We address the ongoing debates over disclosing information about software vulnerabilities through an open public forum. A game-theoretic approach is used to show that full public disclosure can be an equilibrium strategy in a game played by rational loss-minimizing agents. We provide conditions under which full disclosure of vulnerabilities improves social welfare and analyze the effect of vendor and product characteristics, as well as the composition of the pool of software users on the decisions to disclose. We also provide conditions under which user threats to vendors to disclose after a grace period or users’ ability to develop fixes themselves further improve welfare. The likelihood that user-developed fixes improve welfare increases with user familiarity with the details of software, providing an argument for “open source” software.     

A GOOD ADVISOR

Effective education requires strategic consideration. If students doubt the motives of teachers and advisors, then students rationally ignore the advice they receive. Valuable information is lost in such bad communication outcomes and, consequently, the quality of education suffers. In this paper, we argue that an advisor's sacrifice is an essential virtue of a good advisor for efficient communication between an advisor and a student. We model the relation between them as a signaling game. We find a separating equilibrium in which a good advisor (whose objective function truly coincides with the student's own objective function) makes a costly sacrifice that causes the student to believe what the advisor says, while a non‐good advisor (whose objective does not coincide with the student's) chooses not to make the costly sacrifice and, consequently, the student completely ignores the advisor. In fact, it turns out to be the unique equilibrium that survives the Intuitive Criterion. The model demonstrates the importance of making students aware of those aspects of the advisor's objectives that students may not realize are closely aligned with their own (e.g., the extent to which an advisor cares about students' academic and professional trajectories as evaluated by students themselves).     

Credit ratings and corporate disclosure behaviour: evidence from regulation fair disclosure in Korea

This article provides evidence that firms with high market expectations disclose more information to investors, utilizing the fair disclosure regulation in Korea to proxy for their disclosure choices. This finding is consistent with the argument that in order to retain their dominant positions, highly evaluated firms are more concerned about the market’s perception of them as providers of timely and detailed disclosure. We also find that the impact of market expectations on disclosure is more pronounced for chaebol firms. Combined with prior research on the relationship between firm performance and voluntary disclosure, we provide important implications for the determinants of corporate disclosure     

Waste disclosure and corporate cash holdings

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we address an important and emerging question: Can firms’ voluntary waste disclosure affect corporate cash holdings? Using a sample of S&P 500 firms, we find strong evidence for a positive relationship between waste disclosure and the cash holding policy of firms. Furthermore, we find that waste disclosure significantly increases cash holdings only for firms with strong corporate governance quality. We also find that the significant relationship between waste disclosure and cash holdings remains unchanged only for firms that operate in environmentally sensitive industries. Our paper provides novel evidence on the role of voluntary waste disclosure as an environmental dimension that influences the cash policy of firms and highlights the little-known issue of waste disclosure as a significant research topic.     

Military conflict and the rise of urban Europe

We present new evidence about the relationship between military conflict and city population growth in Europe from the fall of Charlemagne’s empire to the start of the Industrial Revolution. Military conflict was a main feature of European history. We argue that cities were safe harbors from conflict threats. To test this argument, we construct a novel database that geocodes the locations of more than 800 conflicts between 800 and 1799. We find a significant, positive, and robust relationship that runs from conflict exposure to city population growth. Our analysis suggests that military conflict played a key role in the rise of urban Europe.     

Transparency and trust: the case of the European Central Bank

We examine how the transparency of the European Central Bank’s monetary policy affects the amount of trust that the citizens of the European Union have in this institution. We use nearly half a million individual responses from the European Commission’s Eurobarometer survey from 2000 to 2011 and estimate probit regressions with sample selection. We find that transparency exerts a non-linear effect on trust. Transparency increases trust, but only up to a certain point; too much transparency harms trust. This result is robust to controlling for a number of macroeconomic conditions, financial stability transparency measures, and economic and socio-demographic characteristics of respondents, including examining respondents in European Union countries that do not use the euro and addressing clustering issues.     

我国上市公司正向盈余意外实现原因研究

通过分析我国上市公司正向盈余意外的实现原因,发现我国上市公司高管没有通过盈余管理或预期管理实现正向盈余意外,除了业绩较好的情况外,上市公司正向盈余意外的另一原因是分析师为与上市公司高管建立或维持良好关系以便获得私有信息,迎合上市公司高管造成的。可见,我国上市公司与分析师之间存在利益冲突,且利益冲突的主要来源是上市公司的选择性信息披露。因此,为规范我国证券分析师行业的发展,有必要提高证券分析师的独立性,完善信息公平披露制度,提高违背公平信息披露规则的违规成本。     

The role of the exchange rate in Canadian monetary policy: evidence from a TVP-BVAR model

A time-varying parameters Bayesian structural vector autoregression (TVP-BVAR) model with stochastic volatility is employed to characterize the monetary policy stance of the Bank of Canada (BoC) in terms of an interest rate rule linking the policy rate to the output gap, inflation and the exchange rate. Using quarterly bilateral Canadian–US data, we find such an interest rate rule to have little explanatory power for the early part of our sample starting in the mid-1980s, but to become more suitable to explain interest rate dynamics from the mid-1990s onwards. Whereas the exchange rate turns out to be the major determinant of the policy rate in the 1980s, its importance declines throughout the 1990s and 2000s, although it continues to be influential even towards the end of the sample period ending in 2015Q2. We also find interest rate shocks to have become more effective in influencing the macroeconomy over time, indicating that the BoC has continually gained monetary policy credibility. We associate this development with the BoC successively de-emphasizing the role of the exchange rate in informing interest rate decisions, thereby alleviating the potential monetary policy conflict between targeting the exchange rate and maintaining the price stability goal.     

Mandated disclosures under IAS 36 Impairment of Assets and IAS 38 Intangible Assets: value relevance and impact on analysts’ forecasts

Drawing on a large sample of European firms, we examine whether variant compliance levels with mandated disclosures under IAS 36 Impairment of Assets and IAS 38 Intangible Assets are value relevant and affect analysts’ forecasts. Our results indicate a mean (median) compliance level of about 84% (86%) but high variation among firms and disclosure levels regarding IAS 36 being much lower than those regarding IAS 38. In depth, analysis reveals that non-compliance relates mostly to proprietary information and information that reveals managers’ judgment and expectations. Furthermore, we find a positive (negative) relationship between average disclosure levels and market values (analysts’ forecast dispersion). Results, however, hold more specifically for disclosures related to IAS 36, and these also improve analysts’ forecast accuracy. Our findings add knowledge regarding the economic consequences of mandatory disclosures, have an appeal to regulators and financial statement preparers and reflect on the IASB’s concerns to increase the guidance and principles on presentation and disclosure.     

Regulation and financial disclosure: The impact of plain English

In October 1998, the SEC implemented a rule requiring firms to use plain English in their prospectus filings. In addition to the rule, the SEC encouraged the use of plain English in all filings and communication with shareholders. Did the SEC rule significantly impact managers’ disclosure style? And, more interestingly, did the SEC’s recommendations lead managers to change their disclosure style in filings not under the plain English mandate? Our textual analysis of Form 424, IPO prospectus, and 10-K filings over 1994–2009 finds that the SEC’s implementation of the plain English rule substantively impacted managerial behavior. When we focus on 10-K filings, we find that after the 1998 rule, firms are more likely to improve the stylistic components of their filing before an equity issuance and firms with better corporate governance policies are more likely to comply with the rule.     

利益驱逐：制衡抑或共谋？——我国上市银行股权特征与经营绩效的关系研究

基于股权特征的视角,以2000-2011年中国13家上市银行的经验数据为样本,对大股东间利益驱逐的行为抉择与银行绩效的关系作了实证分析。研究表明：股权集中度对银行绩效具有显著的负作用;并且,随着股权集中度增大,对银行绩效的削弱能力就越强。股权制衡度与银行绩效间呈显著倒U型关系,即其他大股东对第一大股东的利益驱逐不仅具有制衡作用,而且存在＂利益共谋＂的可能性。因此,应规范大股东资本市场运作行为,提高银行信息披露的透明度,健全中小投资者＂参政＂网络渠道。     

Do Federal Reserve Bank presidents’ interest rate votes in the FOMC follow an electoral cycle?

We find that Federal Reserve Bank presidents’ regional bias in their dissenting interest rate votes in the Federal Open Market Committee follows an electoral cycle. Presidents put more weight on their district’s economic environment during the year prior to their (re-)election relative to nonelection years.     

Endogenous Destruction in a Model of Armed Conflict: Implications for Conflict Intensity,Welfare, and Third‐Party Intervention

This paper employs a contest approach to study a class of territorial conflicts in which conflict‐related arming is (endogenously) destructive of the contest prize. Of particular focus is the effect of endogenously destructive conflict arming upon conflict intensity and utility levels among primary parties to conflict. Also of interest are implications of endogenous destruction upon third‐party welfare effect in conflict. As compared to the case of a fixed‐prize conflict, we find starkly different arming and welfare outcomes in the case of an endogenously destructive conflict. We also find stark differences in third‐party effect under this distinct setting.     

Fear Not For Man? Armed conflict and social capital in Mali

This paper studies the effects of armed conflict on social capital in Mali, where a violent conflict has been raging since 2012. We examine the conflict’s impacts on associational membership using event location data and unique survey data on governance, peace and security (GPS-SHaSA). We show that, in conflict-exposed areas, adult involvement in associations increases from 7 to 14 percentage points. Instrumental variable and difference-in-differences strategies complementary mitigate reverse causation and omitted variable biases as estimated results remain very consistent. Robust estimations constrained to non-migrants samples also rule out selection into migration. Yet this result, consistent with the argument that armed conflict cultivates social engagement, is not a positive outcome in the case of Mali. The increase is observed solely for family and political associations, which are comparatively inward-looking and act as interest groups. We interpret this finding as a form of withdrawal behind group or community boundaries, an interpretation supported by further analysis of interpersonal trust. This sort of withdrawal may exacerbate ethnic divisions and deepen the conflict.     

Estimating interest rate setting behaviour in Korea: a constrained ordered choices model approach

We study the Bank of Korea’s interest rate setting behaviour using an array of constrained ordered choices models, where the Monetary Policy Committee revises the target policy interest rate only when the current market interest rate deviates from the optimal rate by more than certain threshold values. Our models explain changes in the monetary policy stance well for the monthly frequency Korean data since January 2000. We find important roles for the output gap and the foreign exchange rate in understanding the Bank of Korea’s rate decision-making process. We also implement out-of-sample forecast exercises with September 2008 (Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy) for a split point. We demonstrate that out-of-sample predictability improves greatly for the rate cut and the rate hike decisions using SE-adjusted inaction bands.     

上市公司自愿性信息披露行为有效吗?-基于1998-2003年中国证券市场的检验

该文运用经济主体行为最优化与信息经济学方法,对新兴市场中上市公司自愿性信息披露行为动因及其披露机制进行分析,研究信息占优的上市公司经理层如何选择自愿性信息披露行为.在不完全信息条件下论证上市公司分别采取信息公开、分离策略或信息掩饰策略,进行完全性信息披露、部分性信息披露、信息非披露,从而实现公司价值的均衡过程.为验证自愿性信息披露行为的有效性程度,论文构建了中国上市公司自愿性信息披露指数(VDI),并对1998-2003年上市公司自愿性信息披露行为有效性进行实证研究.检验结果表明:(1)中国上市公司的VDI逐年提高;(2)规模大、效益好的上市公司,更倾向于实施自愿性信息披露;(3)公司治理指标对VDI的解释效果并不显著;(4)具有外资股的上市公司自愿性信息披露动机明显较强.     

Moral hazard and legal services contracts

We examine legal services contracts characterized by a contingency fee and an hours reporting requirement in a moral hazard setting. We find that hours reporting requirements in contingency contracts can reduce the rent needed to induce high attorney effort under moral hazard. Under certain conditions, the ability to set hours above the first-best level leads a client to choose a contract inducing high effort when she otherwise would not. The important condition of this result is, however, that hours must be contractible. We apply our model to the 2010 Florida “sunshine” law that requires hours reporting by private attorneys employed on a contingency fee basis by the attorney general. We find the sunshine laws of Florida and other states may, in addition to providing more transparency in government contracting, increase the public benefit from an attorney general’s employment of private attorneys.     

Soft or hard information? A trade-off selection of environmental disclosures by way of peer imitation and geographical distance

With the public pressure increasing, increasingly more number of studies explore how managers respond to outer pressures by using the environmental disclosure tool. However, previous studies ignore systematic research on the condition, duplicity and consequences of environmental disclosures. This article studies how geographical distance and peer imitation influence managers’ selection of soft and hard environmental disclosures and their economic consequences based on cost-benefit trade-off models and empirical data. The results indicate that when public pressure increases sharply, geographical distance has a negative influence on hard environmental disclosures, and peer imitation has a positive influence on soft environmental disclosures. Under the joint effect of two factors, managers tend to disclose soft environmental information more than hard environmental information, which cannot only mitigate potential risks but also ensure good economic consequences. To restrict managers’ opportunistic disclosure behaviour and improve the disclosing level and quality of environmental information, detailed standard norms and heavy punishment measures should be established, and regulating departments should regulate the disclosure behaviour of distanced firms and check the redundancy of soft environmental information to ensure whether the same information is repeatedly disclosed in the annual reports.     

对我国现行财务报告改进的思考

随着全球经济环境发生巨变,作为单位的会计环境,由于受整个经济环境的影响,也发生了变化。面对新的会计环境,现行财务报告体系如何满足使用者对风险信息和不确定信息披露的要求,是值得我们深入研究的新课题。从对新的会计环境下传统的财务报告存在的局限性进行分析入手,可提出对我国现行财务报告改进的思考,找出解决方法。