Does Increased Regulation and Legislation Improve the 8-K Reporting Behavior of Firms?

10.6293/AQAFA.2012.10.02

Khondkar Karim；Robert E. Pinsker

Disclosure ； Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) ； Regulation Fair Disclosure (FD) ； Timeliness ； 8-K filing

Advances in Quantitative Analysis of Finance and Accounting

10期（2012 / 06 / 01）

31 - 61

英文

The purpose of our paper is to examine the timeliness of Form 8-K filings immediately after significant U.S. regulation and legislation such as Regulation Fair Disclosure (FD) (Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC], 2000) and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) (United States Congress, 2002). When considering all firms that filed an 8-K in our sample periods, the post-FD sample filings are timelier than Carter and Soo's (1999) 1993 sample and the post-SOX sample filings are timelier than most of the post-FD data. Market data does not indicate significant market reactions on the 8-K filing date for post-FD filings (consistent with Carter and Soo's results), but we find significant market reactions on the 8-K filing date for the post-SOX filings. When considering only the large (firm) filers, the post-SOX sample has significantly smaller filing lags in most cases relative to the post-FD sample, but we only find weak evidence of the smaller filing lags resulting in improved compliance with stated Form 8-K filing deadlines. We conclude that management reporting behavior has positively changed post-SOX, but the results are less conclusive post-FD.

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