IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/reaccs/v30y2025i1d10.1007_s11142-024-09827-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Voluntary disclosures and monetary policy: evidence from quantitative easing

Author

Listed:
  • Roberto Vincenzi

    (Bocconi University, Accounting Department)

Abstract

This study investigates the influence of central bank private-sector quantitative easing (QE) policies on firms’ voluntary disclosures. While the effects of QE on borrowing costs and asset prices are well documented, spillovers in the disclosure realm remain understudied. This study specifically analyzes the effects of the Corporate Sector Purchase Program (CSPP), a private-sector QE policy implemented by the European Central Bank (ECB) in 2016 targeting corporate bonds in the euro area. Applying a difference-in-differences methodology to pre- and post-CSPP periods, I find that firms whose bonds the central bank purchased under the CSPP decreased their voluntary disclosures, particularly those related to cash flows and liabilities. My analysis attributes this decrease to reduced demand for firm-specific information from the central bank. My findings highlight the indirect consequences of QE monetary policy tools on corporate disclosure and contribute to the understanding of the transmission of monetary policy and investor-clientele dynamics.

Suggested Citation

  • Roberto Vincenzi, 2025. "Voluntary disclosures and monetary policy: evidence from quantitative easing," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 650-701, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:reaccs:v:30:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s11142-024-09827-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s11142-024-09827-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11142-024-09827-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11142-024-09827-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arvind Krishnamurthy & Annette Vissing-Jorgensen, 2011. "The Effects of Quantitative Easing on Interest Rates: Channels and Implications for Policy," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 42(2 (Fall)), pages 215-287.
    2. Kenneth N. Kuttner, 2018. "Outside the Box: Unconventional Monetary Policy in the Great Recession and Beyond," Department of Economics Working Papers 2018-04, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    3. Pasquariello, Paolo & Vega, Clara, 2009. "The on-the-run liquidity phenomenon," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 1-24, April.
    4. Bae, Kee-Hong & Kang, Jun-Koo & Wang, Jin, 2015. "Does Increased Competition Affect Credit Ratings? A Reexamination of the Effect of Fitch’s Market Share on Credit Ratings in the Corporate Bond Market," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 50(5), pages 1011-1035, October.
    5. Domenico Lombardi & Pierre Siklos & Samantha St. Amand, 2018. "A Survey Of The International Evidence And Lessons Learned About Unconventional Monetary Policies: Is A ‘New Normal’ In Our Future?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(5), pages 1229-1256, December.
    6. Beyer, Anne & Cohen, Daniel A. & Lys, Thomas Z. & Walther, Beverly R., 2010. "The financial reporting environment: Review of the recent literature," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 296-343, December.
    7. Manuel Adelino & Miguel A Ferreira & Mariassunta Giannetti & Pedro Pires, 2023. "Trade Credit and the Transmission of Unconventional Monetary Policy," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 36(2), pages 775-813.
    8. Marcel Fratzscher & Marco Lo Duca & Roland Straub, 2016. "ECB Unconventional Monetary Policy: Market Impact and International Spillovers," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 64(1), pages 36-74, May.
    9. Alvis K. Lo, 2014. "Do Declines in Bank Health Affect Borrowers’ Voluntary Disclosures? Evidence from International Propagation of Banking Shocks," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 541-581, May.
    10. Umit G. Gurun & Rick Johnston & Stanimir Markov, 2016. "Sell-Side Debt Analysts and Debt Market Efficiency," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(3), pages 682-703, March.
    11. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez‐De‐Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 2006. "What Works in Securities Laws?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(1), pages 1-32, February.
    12. Oliver Zhen LI & Zili Zhuang, 2012. "Management Guidance and the Underpricing of Seasoned Equity Offerings," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(3), pages 710-737, September.
    13. Lev, B & Penman, Sh, 1990. "Voluntary Forecast Disclosure, Nondisclosure, And Stock-Prices," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 49-76.
    14. Gregory S. Miller & Douglas J. Skinner, 2015. "The Evolving Disclosure Landscape: How Changes in Technology, the Media, and Capital Markets Are Affecting Disclosure," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 221-239, May.
    15. O'Hara, Maureen & Zhou, Xing (Alex), 2021. "Anatomy of a liquidity crisis: Corporate bonds in the COVID-19 crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(1), pages 46-68.
    16. Zaghini, Andrea, 2019. "The CSPP at work: Yield heterogeneity and the portfolio rebalancing channel," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 282-297.
    17. Ertugrul, Mine & Lei, Jin & Qiu, Jiaping & Wan, Chi, 2017. "Annual Report Readability, Tone Ambiguity, and the Cost of Borrowing," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(2), pages 811-836, April.
    18. Bin Miao & Siew Hong Teoh & Zinan Zhu, 2016. "Limited attention, statement of cash flow disclosure, and the valuation of accruals," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 473-515, June.
    19. Karthik Balakrishnan & Mary Brooke Billings & Bryan Kelly & Alexander Ljungqvist, 2014. "Shaping Liquidity: On the Causal Effects of Voluntary Disclosure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(5), pages 2237-2278, October.
    20. Mahyar Kargar & Benjamin Lester & David Lindsay & Shuo Liu & Pierre-Olivier Weill & Diego Zúñiga, 2021. "Corporate Bond Liquidity during the COVID-19 Crisis [The day coronavirus nearly broke the financial markets]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(11), pages 5352-5401.
    21. S. P. Kothari & Susan Shu & Peter D. Wysocki, 2009. "Do Managers Withhold Bad News?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 241-276, March.
    22. Houweling, Patrick & Mentink, Albert & Vorst, Ton, 2005. "Comparing possible proxies of corporate bond liquidity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 1331-1358, June.
    23. Christian Leuz & Peter D. Wysocki, 2016. "The Economics of Disclosure and Financial Reporting Regulation: Evidence and Suggestions for Future Research," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 525-622, May.
    24. Verrecchia, Robert E., 1983. "Discretionary disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 179-194, April.
    25. Bennani, Hamza, 2018. "Media coverage and ECB policy-making: Evidence from an augmented Taylor rule," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 26-38.
    26. Armstrong, Christopher S. & Glaeser, Stephen & Kepler, John D., 2019. "Accounting quality and the transmission of monetary policy," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2).
    27. Todorov, Karamfil, 2020. "Quantify the quantitative easing: Impact on bonds and corporate debt issuance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(2), pages 340-358.
    28. Boyarchenko, Nina & Kovner, Anna & Shachar, Or, 2022. "It’s what you say and what you buy: A holistic evaluation of the corporate credit facilities," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(3), pages 695-731.
    29. Óscar Arce & Sergio Mayordomo & Ricardo Gimeno, 2021. "Making Room for the Needy: The Credit-Reallocation Effects of the ECB’s Corporate QE [Whatever it takes: the real effects of unconventional monetary policy]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 25(1), pages 43-84.
    30. Andrew Bird & Stephen A. Karolyi, 2016. "Do Institutional Investors Demand Public Disclosure?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(12), pages 3245-3277.
    31. Amy P. Hutton & Gregory S. Miller & Douglas J. Skinner, 2003. "The Role of Supplementary Statements with Management Earnings Forecasts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(5), pages 867-890, December.
    32. Alexander Rodnyansky & Olivier M. Darmouni, 2017. "The Effects of Quantitative Easing on Bank Lending Behavior," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(11), pages 3858-3887.
    33. Nozawa, Yoshio & Qiu, Yancheng, 2021. "Corporate bond market reactions to quantitative easing during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    34. DeFond, Mark L. & Hung, Mingyi, 2003. "An empirical analysis of analysts' cash flow forecasts," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 73-100, April.
    35. Douglas D Evanoff & George G Kaufman & A G Malliaris (ed.), 2018. "Innovative Federal Reserve Policies During the Great Financial Crisis," World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number 10891.
    36. repec:oup:revfin:v:29:y:2016:i:12:p:3245-3277. is not listed on IDEAS
    37. Boone, Audra L. & White, Joshua T., 2015. "The effect of institutional ownership on firm transparency and information production," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(3), pages 508-533.
    38. Bozanic, Zahn & Roulstone, Darren T. & Van Buskirk, Andrew, 2018. "Management earnings forecasts and other forward-looking statements," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 1-20.
    39. Ryan Ball & Robert M. Bushman & Florin P. Vasvari, 2008. "The Debt‐Contracting Value of Accounting Information and Loan Syndicate Structure," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(2), pages 247-287, May.
    40. Huang, Ying, 2022. "Government subsidies and corporate disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1).
    41. Glaeser, Stephen, 2018. "The effects of proprietary information on corporate disclosure and transparency: Evidence from trade secrets," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 163-193.
    42. Nemit Shroff & Amy X. Sun & Hal D. White & Weining Zhang, 2013. "Voluntary Disclosure and Information Asymmetry: Evidence from the 2005 Securities Offering Reform," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(5), pages 1299-1345, December.
    43. Arvind Krishnamurthy & Annette Vissing-Jorgensen, 2011. "The Effects of Quantitative Easing on Interest Rates: Channels and Implications for Policy," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 43(2 (Fall)), pages 215-287.
    44. Kenneth N. Kuttner, 2018. "Outside the Box: Unconventional Monetary Policy in the Great Recession and Beyond," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 32(4), pages 121-146, Fall.
    45. Binz, Oliver & Ferracuti, Elia & Joos, Peter, 2023. "Investment, inflation, and the role of internal information systems as a transmission channel," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(2).
    46. Clinton, Sarah B. & White, Joshua T. & Woidtke, Tracie, 2014. "Differences in the information environment prior to seasoned equity offerings under relaxed disclosure regulation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 59-78.
    47. Grosse-Rueschkamp, Benjamin & Steffen, Sascha & Streitz, Daniel, 2019. "A capital structure channel of monetary policy," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(2), pages 357-378.
    48. Christensen, Hans B. & Floyd, Eric & Liu, Lisa Yao & Maffett, Mark, 2017. "The real effects of mandated information on social responsibility in financial reports: Evidence from mine-safety records," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 284-304.
    49. Giovanni Dell'Ariccia & Pau Rabanal & Damiano Sandri, 2018. "Unconventional Monetary Policies in the Euro Area, Japan, and the United Kingdom," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 32(4), pages 147-172, Fall.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zaghini, Andrea, 2024. "Unconventional green," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    2. Gilchrist, Simon & Wei, Bin & Yue, Vivian Z. & Zakrajšek, Egon, 2024. "The Fed takes on corporate credit risk: An analysis of the efficacy of the SMCCF," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    3. Schoenfeld, Jordan, 2017. "The effect of voluntary disclosure on stock liquidity: New evidence from index funds," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 51-74.
    4. Thomas Bourveau & Jordan Schoenfeld, 2017. "Shareholder activism and voluntary disclosure," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 1307-1339, September.
    5. Pegoraro, Stefano & Montagna, Mattia, 2021. "Issuance and valuation of corporate bonds with quantitative easing," Working Paper Series 2520, European Central Bank.
    6. De Santis, Roberto A. & Zaghini, Andrea, 2021. "Unconventional monetary policy and corporate bond issuance," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    7. Park, Jihwon & Sani, Jalal & Shroff, Nemit & White, Hal, 2019. "Disclosure incentives when competing firms have common ownership," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 387-415.
    8. Tuo, Ling & Rezaee, Zabihollah & Gao, Lei, 2024. "Is there a tradeoff between management earnings forecasts and sustainability reporting?," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    9. Snehal Banerjee & Iván Marinovic & Kevin Smith, 2024. "Disclosing to Informed Traders," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 79(2), pages 1513-1578, April.
    10. Albertazzi, Ugo & Barbiero, Francesca & Marqués-Ibáñez, David & Popov, Alexander & Rodriguez d’Acri, Costanza & Vlassopoulos, Thomas, 2020. "Monetary policy and bank stability: the analytical toolbox reviewed," Working Paper Series 2377, European Central Bank.
    11. Galema, Rients & Lugo, Stefano, 2021. "When central banks buy corporate bonds: Target selection and impact of the European Corporate Sector Purchase Program," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    12. Cohen, Lior, 2023. "The effects of the BoJ's ETF purchases on equities and corporate investment," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    13. Pelizzon, Loriana & Riedel, Max & Simon, Zorka & Subrahmanyam, Marti G., 2024. "Collateral eligibility of corporate debt in the Eurosystem," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    14. Jun Chen & Ningzhong Li & Xiaolu Zhou, 2023. "Equity financing incentive and corporate disclosure: new causal evidence from SEO deregulation," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 1003-1034, June.
    15. Cohen, Lior & Furman, Itai, 2024. "The impact of the ECB's PEPP project on the COVID-19-Induced crisis in the corporate bond market," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    16. Blankespoor, Elizabeth & deHaan, Ed & Marinovic, Iván, 2020. "Disclosure processing costs, investors’ information choice, and equity market outcomes: A review," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2).
    17. Mäkinen, Taneli & Li, Fan & Mercatanti, Andrea & Silvestrini, Andrea, 2022. "Causal analysis of central bank holdings of corporate bonds under interference," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    18. Bank for International Settlements, 2019. "Unconventional monetary policy tools: a cross-country analysis," CGFS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 63, december.
    19. Thomas Bourveau & Yun Lou & Rencheng Wang, 2018. "Shareholder Litigation and Corporate Disclosure: Evidence from Derivative Lawsuits," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 797-842, June.
    20. Christian Leuz & Peter D. Wysocki, 2016. "The Economics of Disclosure and Financial Reporting Regulation: Evidence and Suggestions for Future Research," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 525-622, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:reaccs:v:30:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s11142-024-09827-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.