IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/cesisp/0371.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Are Bad Times Good News for the Securities and Exchange Commission?

Author

Listed:
  • Lohse, Tim

    (Berlin School of Economics and Law, Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance)

  • Thomann, Christian

    (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology)

Abstract

There exists a considerable debate in the literature investigating how stock market upswings or downswings impact financial market regulation. The present paper contributes to this literature and investigates whether financial market regulation follows a regulative cycle: does regulation, and consequently investor protection, increase as a result of a stock market downturn (as argued by, e.g., Zingales (2009)) or – contrary to the regulative cycle hypothesis – as a result of an upswing (as claimed by Povel (2007), or Hertzberg (2003)) Following Jackson and Roe (2009), we use funding data on the world’s most important financial market regulator, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as a proxy for the politically desired degree of regulation. We apply time series analysis. Using more than 60 years of data, we show that the SEC’s funding follows a regulative cycle: A weak stock market results in increased resources for the SEC. A strong stock market results in reduced resources. Our findings underline the downside of regulation as the regulative cycle amplifies the technical procyclicality inherent in regulation.

Suggested Citation

  • Lohse, Tim & Thomann, Christian, 2014. "Are Bad Times Good News for the Securities and Exchange Commission?," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 371, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0371
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://static.sys.kth.se/itm/wp/cesis/cesiswp371.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Luigi Zingales, 2009. "The Future of Securities Regulation," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 391-425, May.
    2. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez‐De‐Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 2006. "What Works in Securities Laws?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(1), pages 1-32, February.
    3. A. Mitchell Polinsky & Steven Shavell, 2009. "Public Enforcement of Law," Chapters, in: Nuno Garoupa (ed.), Criminal Law and Economics, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Jackson, Howell E. & Roe, Mark J., 2009. "Public and private enforcement of securities laws: Resource-based evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 207-238, August.
    5. Christopher A. Sims & Tao Zha, 1999. "Error Bands for Impulse Responses," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 67(5), pages 1113-1156, September.
    6. Lohse, Tim & Pascalau, Razvan & Thomann, Christian, 2014. "Public enforcement of securities market rules: Resource-based evidence from the Securities and Exchange Commission," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 197-212.
    7. Efraim Benmelech & Tobias J. Moskowitz, 2010. "The Political Economy of Financial Regulation: Evidence from U.S. State Usury Laws in the 19th Century," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(3), pages 1029-1073, June.
    8. Lohse, Tim & Pascalau, Razvan & Thomann, Christian, 2014. "Public Enforcement of Securities Market Rules: Resource-based evidence from the Securities Exchange Commission," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 364, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    9. Glenn Boyle & Richard Meade, 2008. "Intra-country regulation of share markets: does one size fit all?," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 151-165, April.
    10. Lucian A. Bebchuk & Zvika Neeman, 2010. "Investor Protection and Interest Group Politics," NBER Chapters, in: Corporate Governance, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Evgeni Peev, 2015. "Institutions, economic liberalization and firm growth: evidence from European transition economies," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 149-174, August.
    12. Iljoong Kim, 2008. "Securities laws ‘facilitating’ private enforcement," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 17-38, February.
    13. Paul Povel & Rajdeep Singh & Andrew Winton, 2007. "Booms, Busts, and Fraud," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(4), pages 1219-1254.
    14. James R. Brown & Gustav Martinsson & Bruce C. Petersen, 2013. "Law, Stock Markets, and Innovation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(4), pages 1517-1549, August.
    15. Andrei Shleifer, 2005. "Understanding Regulation," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 11(4), pages 439-451, September.
    16. Tracy Yue Wang & Andrew Winton & Xiaoyun Yu, 2010. "Corporate Fraud and Business Conditions: Evidence from IPOs," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(6), pages 2255-2292, December.
    17. Bertomeu, Jeremy & Magee, Robert P., 2011. "From low-quality reporting to financial crises: Politics of disclosure regulation along the economic cycle," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 209-227.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lohse, Tim & Pascalau, Razvan & Thomann, Christian, 2014. "Public enforcement of securities market rules: Resource-based evidence from the Securities and Exchange Commission," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 197-212.
    2. Evgeni Peev, 2015. "Institutions, economic liberalization and firm growth: evidence from European transition economies," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 149-174, August.
    3. Giuseppe Vita & Livio Ferrante, 2021. "Is legislation grease or sand to economic growth? An econometric analysis using data from Italian regions before and after the 2008 crisis," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 541-561, June.
    4. Anand, Anita & Green, Andrew, 2018. "Securities settlements as examples of crisis-driven regulation," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 41-57.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lohse, Tim & Pascalau, Razvan & Thomann, Christian, 2014. "Public enforcement of securities market rules: Resource-based evidence from the Securities and Exchange Commission," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 197-212.
    2. Lohse, Tim & Pascalau, Razvan & Thomann, Christian, 2014. "Public Enforcement of Securities Market Rules: Resource-based evidence from the Securities Exchange Commission," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 364, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    3. Abdul‐Rahman Khokhar & Hesam Shahriari, 2022. "Is the SEC captured? Evidence from political connectedness and SEC enforcement actions," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(2), pages 2725-2756, June.
    4. Dan Amiram & Zahn Bozanic & James D. Cox & Quentin Dupont & Jonathan M. Karpoff & Richard Sloan, 2018. "Financial reporting fraud and other forms of misconduct: a multidisciplinary review of the literature," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 732-783, June.
    5. Licht, Amir N. & Poliquin, Christopher & Siegel, Jordan I. & Li, Xi, 2018. "What makes the bonding stick? A natural experiment testing the legal bonding hypothesis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(2), pages 329-356.
    6. Fauver, Larry & Loureiro, Gilberto & Taboada, Alvaro G., 2017. "The impact of regulation on information quality and performance around seasoned equity offerings: International evidence," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 73-98.
    7. Christian Leuz & Peter D. Wysocki, 2016. "The Economics of Disclosure and Financial Reporting Regulation: Evidence and Suggestions for Future Research," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 525-622, May.
    8. Christensen, Hans B. & Hail, Luzi & Leuz, Christian, 2010. "Capital-Market Effects of Securities Regulation: The Role of Implementation and Enforcement," Working Papers 241, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.
    9. Cumming, Douglas & Dannhauser, Robert & Johan, Sofia, 2015. "Financial market misconduct and agency conflicts: A synthesis and future directions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 150-168.
    10. Ormazabal, Gaizka, 2018. "The Role of Stakeholders in Corporate Governance: A View from Accounting Research," CEPR Discussion Papers 12775, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. Christian Leuz, 2010. "Different approaches to corporate reporting regulation: How jurisdictions differ and why," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(3), pages 229-256.
    12. Cumming, Douglas & Knill, April & Richardson, Nela, 2015. "Firm size and the impact of securities regulation," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 417-442.
    13. Xuan Tam & Eric Young & bo sun, 2014. "Regulatory Intensity, Crash Risk, and the Business Cycle," 2014 Meeting Papers 416, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    14. Heese, Jonas & Krishnan, Ranjani & Ramasubramanian, Hari, 2021. "The Department of Justice as a gatekeeper in whistleblower-initiated corporate fraud enforcement: Drivers and consequences," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1).
    15. Hutton, Amy & Shu, Susan & Zheng, Xin, 2022. "Regulatory transparency and the alignment of private and public enforcement: Evidence from the public disclosure of SEC comment letters," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(1), pages 297-321.
    16. James R. Brown & Gustav Martinsson, 2019. "Does Transparency Stifle or Facilitate Innovation?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(4), pages 1600-1623, April.
    17. Paulo Pereira Silva & Isabel Vieira, 2022. "On the Effects of Capital Markets’ Regulation on Price Informativeness: an Assessment of EU Market Abuse Directive," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 36(2), pages 125-157, June.
    18. Laure Batz, 2023. "Financial market enforcement in France," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 409-468, June.
    19. Cumming, Douglas & Ji, Shan & Peter, Rejo & Tarsalewska, Monika, 2020. "Market manipulation and innovation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    20. Cowan, Arnold R. & Salotti, Valentina, 2020. "Anti-selective disclosure regulation and analyst forecast accuracy and usefulness," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Financial Regulation; Procyclicality; Securities and Ex-change Commission; Stock Market;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C32 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes; State Space Models
    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0371. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Vardan Hovsepyan (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cekthse.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.