Understanding how audit market competition affects audit quality is of significant interest to academics, practitioners, and regulators, with important capital market and policy implications. Regulators around the world have expressed concerns that companies have too few choices in the audit market and believe that the lack of choice is resulting in low competition. As a… Read More »
Whether environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies enhance shareholder value has been the subject of debate for decades. There are three views on ESG investments. The first view argues that ESG activities enhance shareholder value because they are productive investments in “reputation” or “goodwill” capital (hereafter as “goodwill capital” view). ESG activities reduce transaction costs… Read More »
Imagine a company that invests in a portfolio of long-term financial assets. This company’s asset portfolio is, relative to the asset management industry, highly concentrated—a circumstance which naturally heightens the appetite of the company’s own investors to know more details of the assets in the portfolio. The company operates in an adolescent industry, and neither… Read More »
To facilitate small and high growth firms in need of finance, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) introduced a secondary market, the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), in 1995. The AIM is a lightly regulated market, with minimum eligibility criteria and ongoing obligations, which was initially considered to be a stepping-stone to the traditionally regulated Main Market… Read More »
The financial media provides information to investors by monitoring firms for malfeasance, such as fraud and excessive CEO pay (Miller, 2006; Core, Guay, and Larcker, 2008). The media also helps investors monitor more mundane corporate activities, such as periodic earnings announcements. However, it is unclear why certain firms get extensive media coverage, along with the resulting benefits,… Read More »
There is no lack of interest in new technologies such as distributed ledger technology (DLT) or smart contract technology (SCT). For enthusiasts, DLT and SCT are full of promise. Thanks to technology, the future is meant to be frictionless and more decentralized. However, interest in the “plumbing” underneath, which is required to implement the vision… Read More »
The following post summarizes a comment letter to the SEC on its proposed rule to shorten the required filing time for disclosing the acquisition of more than five percent equity share in a public company. All comments can be found here. Under the Modernization of Beneficial Ownership Reporting (proposed rule), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seeks to shorten… Read More »
In 2021, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) launched an immunity policy for certain market misconduct offenses, including insider trading and market manipulation. The ASIC immunity policy grants a full exemption from civil and criminal sanctions (specifically immunity) to individuals who have colluded with others to contravene a provision of Part 7.10 of the Corporations Act 2001.… Read More »
A private foundation is an independent legal entity that provides a vehicle for charitable giving. Private foundations play an increasingly important role in modern society through their support of public charities and their own philanthropic programs. In tax year 2016, private foundations had roughly $900 billion in total assets and distributed nearly $65 billion to… Read More »
For the last year, participants in the growing financial technology (FinTech) sector have been anticipating new regulation for digital assets. On March 9, 2022, President Biden signed an executive order to begin the process of developing a new supervisory regime that will help the United States be a leader in the space and resolve the challenges associated… Read More »
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