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Carrot or Stick? The Shift from Voluntary to Mandatory Disclosure of Risk Factors

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  • Karen K. Nelson
  • A. C. Pritchard

Abstract

This study investigates risk factor disclosures, examining both the voluntary, incentive‐based disclosure regime provided by the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act as well as the SEC's subsequent mandate of these disclosures. Firms subject to greater litigation risk disclose more risk factors, update the language more from year to year, and use more readable language than firms with lower litigation risk. These differences in the quality of disclosure are pronounced in the voluntary disclosure regime, but converge following the SEC mandate as low‐risk firms improved the quality of their risk factor disclosures. Consistent with these findings, the risk factor disclosures of high‐litigation‐risk firms are significantly more informative about systematic and idiosyncratic firm risk when disclosure is voluntary but not when disclosure is mandatory. Overall, the results suggest that for some firms voluntary disclosure of risk factors is not a substitute for a regulatory mandate.

Suggested Citation

  • Karen K. Nelson & A. C. Pritchard, 2016. "Carrot or Stick? The Shift from Voluntary to Mandatory Disclosure of Risk Factors," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(2), pages 266-297, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:empleg:v:13:y:2016:i:2:p:266-297
    DOI: 10.1111/jels.12115
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Ridhima Saggar & Balwinder Singh, 2019. "Drivers of Corporate Risk Disclosure in Indian Non-financial Companies: A Longitudinal Approach," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 44(3), pages 303-325, August.
    2. Bradley E. Hendricks & Mark Lang & Kenneth Merkley, 2022. "Through the eyes of the founder: CEO characteristics and firms’ regulatory filings," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(3-4), pages 383-422, March.
    3. Allen H. Huang & Jianghua Shen & Amy Y. Zang, 2022. "The unintended benefit of the risk factor mandate of 2005," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 1319-1355, December.
    4. Rjiba, Hatem & Saadi, Samir & Boubaker, Sabri & Ding, Xiaoya (Sara), 2021. "Annual report readability and the cost of equity capital," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    5. Jing Chen & Elaine Henry & Xi Jiang, 2023. "Is Cybersecurity Risk Factor Disclosure Informative? Evidence from Disclosures Following a Data Breach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 187(1), pages 199-224, September.
    6. Sabri Boubaker & Imen Derouiche & Hung Nguyen, 2022. "Voluntary disclosure, tax avoidance and family firms," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 26(1), pages 129-158, March.
    7. Jerry W. Chen & Eunice S. Khoo & Zihang Peng, 2023. "Climate change disclosure and the information environment in the initial public offering market," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(S1), pages 907-952, April.
    8. Dyer, Travis & Lang, Mark & Stice-Lawrence, Lorien, 2017. "The evolution of 10-K textual disclosure: Evidence from Latent Dirichlet Allocation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 221-245.
    9. Jaeschke, Reemda & Lopatta, Kerstin & Yi, Cheong, 2018. "Managers’ use of language in corrupt firms’ financial disclosures: Evidence from FCPA violators," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 170-192.
    10. Dain C. Donelson & Justin J. Hopkins & Christopher G. Yust, 2018. "The cost of disclosure regulation: evidence from D&O insurance and nonmeritorious securities litigation," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 528-588, June.
    11. Gao, Lei & Calderon, Thomas G. & Tang, Fengchun, 2020. "Public companies' cybersecurity risk disclosures," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    12. Michael J Bommarito II & Daniel Martin Katz, 2016. "Measuring the temperature and diversity of the U.S. regulatory ecosystem," Papers 1612.09244, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2017.

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