Styles of regulators: evidence from the SEC's comment letters
We investigate whether individual securities regulators exhibit personal styles in their work, a question of importance to corporate executives and capital market participants. Using the SEC's comment letters as our setting, we find that SEC staff members exhibit unique personal “styles.” We ma...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2022
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/160076 |
| _version_ | 1811686317006782464 |
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| author | Do, Peter Truc Thuc Zhang, Huai |
| author2 | Nanyang Business School |
| author_facet | Nanyang Business School Do, Peter Truc Thuc Zhang, Huai |
| author_sort | Do, Peter Truc Thuc |
| collection | NTU |
| description | We investigate whether individual securities regulators exhibit personal styles in their work, a question of importance to corporate executives and capital market participants. Using the SEC's comment letters as our setting, we find that SEC staff members exhibit unique personal “styles.” We manually collect information on SEC staff members and provide evidence that staff members' personal characteristics influence the SEC's review process. Further analyses reveal that SEC staff members with a CPA qualification are associated with a lower likelihood of future accounting restatements; moreover, similarity between the SEC staff member and the firm's correspondent is associated with lower scrutiny intensity. Overall, our study offers evidence that SEC staff members exhibit individual differences and that their styles shape the SEC's enforcement actions. Our results offer implications for the working of securities regulators. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T04:58:29Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/160076 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T04:58:29Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1600762023-05-19T07:31:18Z Styles of regulators: evidence from the SEC's comment letters Do, Peter Truc Thuc Zhang, Huai Nanyang Business School Business::Operations management Regulation Enforcement Comment Letters We investigate whether individual securities regulators exhibit personal styles in their work, a question of importance to corporate executives and capital market participants. Using the SEC's comment letters as our setting, we find that SEC staff members exhibit unique personal “styles.” We manually collect information on SEC staff members and provide evidence that staff members' personal characteristics influence the SEC's review process. Further analyses reveal that SEC staff members with a CPA qualification are associated with a lower likelihood of future accounting restatements; moreover, similarity between the SEC staff member and the firm's correspondent is associated with lower scrutiny intensity. Overall, our study offers evidence that SEC staff members exhibit individual differences and that their styles shape the SEC's enforcement actions. Our results offer implications for the working of securities regulators. Ministry of Education (MOE) Published version Zhang acknowledges thefinancial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China(71572038, 71872046, 71872078) and Singapore Ministry of Education (RG163/17). Do acknowledges thefinancial sup-port from UQ Business School (BEL new staff start-up funds). 2022-07-12T06:48:07Z 2022-07-12T06:48:07Z 2022 Journal Article Do, P. T. T. & Zhang, H. (2022). Styles of regulators: evidence from the SEC's comment letters. Contemporary Accounting Research, 39(2), 789-825. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.12753 0823-9150 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/160076 10.1111/1911-3846.12753 2-s2.0-85126897106 2 39 789 825 en RG163/17 Contemporary Accounting Research © 2022 Canadian Academic Accounting Association (CAAA). All rights reserved. This paper was published by Wiley in Contemporary Accounting Research and is made available with permission of Canadian Academic Accounting Association (CAAA). application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | Business::Operations management Regulation Enforcement Comment Letters Do, Peter Truc Thuc Zhang, Huai Styles of regulators: evidence from the SEC's comment letters |
| title | Styles of regulators: evidence from the SEC's comment letters |
| title_full | Styles of regulators: evidence from the SEC's comment letters |
| title_fullStr | Styles of regulators: evidence from the SEC's comment letters |
| title_full_unstemmed | Styles of regulators: evidence from the SEC's comment letters |
| title_short | Styles of regulators: evidence from the SEC's comment letters |
| title_sort | styles of regulators evidence from the sec s comment letters |
| topic | Business::Operations management Regulation Enforcement Comment Letters |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/160076 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT dopetertructhuc stylesofregulatorsevidencefromthesecscommentletters AT zhanghuai stylesofregulatorsevidencefromthesecscommentletters |