Correction to “How Does Financial-Reporting Regulation Affect Industry-Wide Resource Allocation?”

Abstract

This correction describes errors in the program code of Breuer [2021] and presents revised results. The errors affect the construction of the standardized reporting and auditing scopes, the treatment variables of the primary research design in Breuer [2021]. The revised results show weaker evidence that reporting mandates facilitate ownership dispersion in capital markets compared to Breuer [2021]. They also show weaker evidence that reporting mandates spur competition in product markets, including mixed evidence on product-market entry. Consistent with Breuer [2021], the revised results continue to show no unambiguous evidence that reporting mandates improve the efficiency of industry-wide resource allocation. With respect to audit mandates, the revised results continue to show evidence that the mandates impose a barrier to entry. Overall, the correction indicates that the impacts of reporting and auditing mandates are even more uncertain than reported in Breuer [2021] and that further research on these impacts is called for.