To protect or to hide: An investigation on corporate redacted disclosure motives under new FAST act regulation

China adopted amendments allowing companies to redact filings without prior approval in 2016. Leveraging this change as a quasi-nature experiment, we explore whether managers utilize redacted information to withhold bad information in the more lenient regulatory environment. Our investigation uncove...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: MA, Yan, MAO, Qian, HU, Nan
Format: text
Language:English
Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2024
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Online Access:https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/8812
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/9815/viewcontent/Protect0rHide_av.pdf
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Institution: Singapore Management University
Language: English
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Summary:China adopted amendments allowing companies to redact filings without prior approval in 2016. Leveraging this change as a quasi-nature experiment, we explore whether managers utilize redacted information to withhold bad information in the more lenient regulatory environment. Our investigation uncovers a significant shift in managerial behavior: Since 2016, managers incline to employ redactions to obscure negative news rather than safeguarding proprietary data. Furthermore, we find that the poorer firm performance and a higher cost of equity are associated with the redacted disclosures after 2016, suggesting that investors perceive an increase in firm-specific risk attributed to withholding bad news through redactions.