Jiyuan Dai, Gaizka Ormazabal, Fernando Penalva, Robert Raney
{"title":"Mandatory Investor Disclosure, Sustainability Commitments, and Portfolio Decarbonization","authors":"Jiyuan Dai, Gaizka Ormazabal, Fernando Penalva, Robert Raney","doi":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2025.101817","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacceco.2025.101817","url":null,"abstract":"<ce:italic>We study the decarbonization effects of imposing sustainability regulation on investors. Our focus is the</ce:italic><ce:italic>EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), which requires</ce:italic><ce:italic>funds domiciled or marketed in the</ce:italic><ce:italic>EU to classify themselves based on different degrees of sustainability commitment and imposes disclosure requirements based on such classification.</ce:italic> Using a broad sample of international investment funds, we document <ce:italic>that the SFDR was followed by a significant decarbonization (around 10 percent) of investment portfolios of</ce:italic><ce:italic>funds domiciled or marketed in the</ce:italic><ce:italic>EU claiming to invest based on sustainability criteria.</ce:italic> Additional tests suggest that the lower level of emissions is primarily driven by changes in funds’ investment decisions, although there is some indication that firm-level emissions may also contribute to the observed decarbonization. <ce:italic>Overall, our evidence suggests that the regulation resulted not only in</ce:italic> shifting capital flows away from high-emission firms, but also in increased pressure on portfolio firms to achieve emissions reductions at the firm level.","PeriodicalId":42721,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Economics Management and Accounting","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144664690","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"What Director Experience Matters: A Discussion of Donelson, Hutzler and Rhodes (2025)","authors":"Mary Ellen Carter","doi":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2025.101816","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacceco.2025.101816","url":null,"abstract":"Donelson, Hutzler, and Rhodes (this issue) examine the impact on firms’ corporate governance of increased government antitrust enforcement against competitor interlocking directors. While these directors could facilitate collusion among firms, raising antitrust concerns, they also bring crucial industry expertise that enhances corporate governance. The authors find enhanced enforcement led to voluntary reductions in these directors. Given that these directors are associated with improved firm performance, investment efficiency, and CEO monitoring, the authors suggest that this enforcement will impair corporate governance. I discuss concerns around the narrow definition of director experience that limits the interpretation of the findings. I also discuss several open questions raised by the study and the opportunity this study provides to contribute to research on common ownership. Throughout I propose questions that future research might explore which would enhance our understanding of competitor interlocking directorates.","PeriodicalId":42721,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Economics Management and Accounting","volume":"52 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144664956","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sinja Leonelli, Maximilian Muhn, Thomas Rauter, Gurpal Sran
{"title":"How Do Consumers Use ESG Disclosure? Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment with Everyday Product Purchases","authors":"Sinja Leonelli, Maximilian Muhn, Thomas Rauter, Gurpal Sran","doi":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2025.101811","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacceco.2025.101811","url":null,"abstract":"We combine a large-scale field experiment with a customized survey to study how consumers use and respond to ESG disclosure. In a sample of over 24,000 U.S. households, we first establish that while consumers moderately prefer to purchase from ESG-responsible firms, they rarely consult corporate reporting directly and face various frictions in learning about firm-level activities. In our field experiment, we then inform households about real firm-disclosed activities through several randomized information treatments. Consumers increase their purchase intent when exogenously presented with positive signals about environmental, social, and—to a lesser extent—governance activities. Full ESG reports increase purchase intentions only for consumers who choose to view them. After the experiment, consumers increase their actual purchases, but these effects are small, short-lived, and only materialize for social signals and viewed ESG reports. Through a follow-up survey, we provide explanations for why consumers (do not) change their behavior after our experiment.","PeriodicalId":42721,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Economics Management and Accounting","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144664692","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Complexities in utilizing the patent pilot program as shock to judicial efficiency felt by firms","authors":"Melissa F. Wasserman","doi":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2025.101812","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacceco.2025.101812","url":null,"abstract":"The paper by Kim, Shi, and Verdi (2025) examines how judicial efficiency—as defined by the court’s ability to resolve patent cases quickly and in a manner that is mutually agreeable to both parties in the lawsuit—affects the incentives of corporations to innovate. The authors utilize the Patent Pilot Program (PPP), which routed patent cases to PPP-designated judges in select districts to facilitate efficient rulings, as a shock to judicial efficiency. The authors find that firms headquartered in counties subject to the PPP increase patent-based innovation by 6.1 %–6.9 %, relative to firms in counties not under the program. However, there are aspects of patent litigation that complicate the ability to neatly divide firms into treated (those who feel the effects of increased judicial efficiency associated with PPP districts) and non-treated (those that do not). The difficulty in identifying treated and untreated firms confounds the ability to interpret the increase in patent-based innovation incentives for firms headquartered in PPP judicial districts.","PeriodicalId":42721,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Economics Management and Accounting","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144664741","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Promises and Pitfalls of Mandated Ownership Transparency: A Discussion of","authors":"Thomas Rauter","doi":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2025.101814","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacceco.2025.101814","url":null,"abstract":"<ce:cross-ref ref>Amberger, Wilde, and Wu (2025, AWW)</ce:cross-ref> examine the impact of EU beneficial ownership transparency (BOT) regulation on cross-border investment. They find that BOT is associated with reductions in investments from non-EU financial havens into the EU and that BOT unintentionally discourages legitimate investments without deterring illicit actors. My discussion evaluates AWW’s evidence, positions the paper within the existing literature, and discusses its contributions. I particularly focus on challenges in measuring illicit activities and the impact of voluntary FDI data reporting by EU countries. I also assess how privacy concerns and recent legal decisions have shaped the evolving landscape of beneficial ownership mandates and how they may affect the public scrutiny mechanism going forward. To contextualize the paper’s findings, I provide new survey evidence on private firms’ disclosure practices and interview-based insights into the practical use of BOT registries. I conclude with suggestions for future research.","PeriodicalId":42721,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Economics Management and Accounting","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144621771","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Real effects of lagged guidance from prudential regulators on CECL","authors":"Riddha Basu, Sugata Roychowdhury, Kirti Sinha","doi":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2025.101808","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacceco.2025.101808","url":null,"abstract":"We examine the impact of lagged guidance from prudential regulators on new accounting standards in the context of the Current Expected Credit Loss (CECL) standard. We refer to the period following CECL's 2016 pronouncement but prior to the 2018 guidance from prudential banking regulators on the standard as the lagged guidance (<ce:italic>LG)</ce:italic> period. We find that during the <ce:italic>LG</ce:italic> period, banks reduce loan amounts and increase loan spreads for affected loans (Term Loan As, or TLAs) relative to unaffected loans (Term Loan Bs, or TLBs). Following the 2018 regulatory guidelines, however, banks increase loan amounts and reduce loan spreads on TLAs relative to TLBs. The stricter TLA terms during the <ce:italic>LG</ce:italic> period coincide with decreased investments by corporate borrowers dependent exclusively on TLAs, especially those that borrow frequently and are financially constrained. The results indicate that delayed guidance from industry regulators on CECL had spillover effects in the economy.","PeriodicalId":42721,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Economics Management and Accounting","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144621831","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unraveling the time-series dynamics between aggregate earnings and GDP","authors":"Lindsey A. Gallo, Hengda Jin, Suhas A. Sridharan","doi":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2025.101806","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacceco.2025.101806","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines time-series variation in the relationship between aggregate earnings and GDP (AEG). Using quarterly data from 1979-2019, we document that aggregate earnings are positively associated with future real GDP after 2000 but not before. We further show that this variation does not result from an association between aggregate earnings and the corporate profits component of GDP. Instead, we discover that aggregate special items — not core earnings — drive the post-2000 AEG by conveying information about labor market outcomes. Specifically, aggregate special items relate to future GDP only when they predict wages and worker displacement. Our study contributes to the literature by documenting previously unexplored time variation in the AEG relationship and identifying its source, challenging conventional assumptions about how aggregate accounting measures signal future economic conditions.","PeriodicalId":42721,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Economics Management and Accounting","volume":"39 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144566521","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Oliver Binz, Katherine Schipper, Kevin R. Standridge
{"title":"Estimating Profitability Decomposition Frameworks via Machine Learning: Implications for Earnings Forecasting and Financial Statement Analysis","authors":"Oliver Binz, Katherine Schipper, Kevin R. Standridge","doi":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2025.101805","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacceco.2025.101805","url":null,"abstract":"We find that nonlinear estimation of profitability decomposition frameworks yields more accurate out-of-sample profitability forecasts than forecasts from both a random walk and linear estimation. The improvements derive from nonlinear estimation and synergies between nonlinear estimation and profitability decomposition frameworks. We analyze three essential financial statement analysis design choices to provide insights for the practice of fundamental analysis and find robust evidence that higher levels of profitability decomposition, focusing on core items, and using up to three years of historical information improve forecast accuracy. We find that our forecasts predict returns and profitability changes before and after controlling for analyst forecasts and common asset pricing factors.","PeriodicalId":42721,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Economics Management and Accounting","volume":"244 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144337782","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Trading of Emission Allowances and Reporting Incentives","authors":"Donald N’Gatta, Gaizka Ormazabal, Robert Raney","doi":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2025.101804","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacceco.2025.101804","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines the role of reporting incentives on the trading of emission allowances. Our tests are based on a wide international sample of firms and data from the European Union Emission Trading System (EU ETS), which is the most liquid and developed in the world. We find evidence consistent with the notion that excess allowances combined with historical cost accounting for emission rights provide firms the opportunity to obtain a reporting benefit from selling emission allowances. We observe more frequent selling of allowances when the transactions are likely to boost earnings to avoid accounting losses. The documented trading activity increases in the ETS market towards the end of the year and is associated with selling imbalance and effects on carbon pricing, which in turn affect firms’ emission abatement incentives. Our results have implications for the debate on the institutional design of carbon markets and on the need to define an accounting standard for emission allowances.","PeriodicalId":42721,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Economics Management and Accounting","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144304680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jonathan Libgober, Beatrice Michaeli, Elyashiv Wiedman
{"title":"With a grain of salt: Investor reactions to uncertain news and (Non)disclosure","authors":"Jonathan Libgober, Beatrice Michaeli, Elyashiv Wiedman","doi":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2025.101802","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacceco.2025.101802","url":null,"abstract":"We examine how external news with uncertain precision influences investor beliefs, market prices, and corporate disclosures. We find that good external (and public) news is taken with a grain of salt—specifically, it is perceived as unlikely to be precise—confirming investor beliefs that nondisclosing managers are hiding unfavorable (private) information. As a result, better external news may paradoxically lead to lower market valuation. Overall, we find that, amid management silence, equilibrium stock prices are nonmonotonic in (and react asymmetrically to) external news. We also predict that the probability of disclosure depends on the timing of the disclosure, the positivity of external news, and the financial strength of the industry.","PeriodicalId":42721,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Economics Management and Accounting","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144304958","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}