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Conflicts of Interest, Disclosure, and (Costly) Sanctions: Experimental Evidence

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  • Bryan K. Church
  • Xi (Jason) Kuang

Abstract

Conflicts of interest may compromise individuals' independence in providing advisory services. Full disclosure is a commonly recommended remedy for the adverse effect of conflicts of interest. Yet prior study shows that disclosure may not have the intended effect because it provides individuals with moral license to engage in self-interested behavior, thereby exacerbating biases. We follow up on this research and seek to determine whether other institutional factors may negate the potentially harmful effects of disclosure. We conduct a laboratory experiment, focusing on behavior in an investor/financial adviser dyad, including important representative features in this setting. Our results suggest that disclosure is not necessarily detrimental. We find that investors are better off when conflicts of interest are disclosed and sanctions are available, even though initiating sanctions is costly to investors. Under such conditions, advisers' bias is dampened markedly. (c) 2009 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.

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  • Bryan K. Church & Xi (Jason) Kuang, 2009. "Conflicts of Interest, Disclosure, and (Costly) Sanctions: Experimental Evidence," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 38(2), pages 505-532, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlstud:v:38:y:2009:i:2:p:505-532
    DOI: 10.1086/596117
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    2. Sascha Behnk & Iván Barreda-Tarrazona & Aurora García-Gallego, 2018. "Punishing liars—How monitoring affects honesty and trust," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(10), pages 1-30, October.
    3. Paul Chen & Martin Richardson, 2019. "Conflict of Interest, Disclosure and Vertical Relationships: An Experimental Analysis," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 38(3), pages 167-181, September.
    4. Sascha Behnk & Iván Barreda-Tarrazona & Aurora García-Gallego, 2017. "An experimental test of reporting systems for deception," Working Papers 2017/11, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    5. Sofia Amaral-Garcia, 2020. "Medical Device Companies and Doctors: Do their Interactions Affect Medical Treatments ?," Working Papers ECARES 2020-18, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    6. Effron, Daniel A. & Raj, Medha, 2021. "Disclosing interpersonal conflicts of interest: Revealing whom we like, but not whom we dislike," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 68-85.
    7. Jeremy Burke & Angela A. Hung & Jack Clift & Steven Garber & Joanne K. Yoong, 2015. "Impacts of Conflicts of Interest in the Financial Services Industry," Working Papers WR-1076, RAND Corporation.
    8. Behnk, Sascha & Barreda-Tarrazona, Iván & García-Gallego, Aurora, 2019. "Deception and reputation – An experimental test of reporting systems," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 37-58.

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