Doctoral Dissertation Research: Voluntary Firm Practices and Paths to Regulation

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SES#: 1002629PI: David C. StarkCo-PI: Dennis BoguszColumbia UniversityWhy do regulators mandate practices that firms already employ voluntarily? In the research, a dataset will be created of regulations, stock market listing rules and corporate governance standards from the United States and nine other countries. Voluntary practices will be ascertained from annual reports and other corporate disclosures from roughly 1500 listed companies headquartered in the focal countries. Data for both regulations and voluntary practices span the period from 1989 to 2008. Qualitative comparative analysis will explain the various paths to regulation, both within and between the countries, through combinations of causal conditions. Foremost is the prevalence of originally voluntary practices. Additional conditions that explain the transition to regulation include a history of corporate governance scandals, capital market development, and the political and legal framework of each country. BROADER IMPACTS: The resulting dataset will become a valuable research tool for other scholars keen on understanding regulatory change partially rooted in firm behavior. Further, this research stands to benefit industry leaders, regulators and policymakers by elucidating relationships in the capital markets that, although often overlooked, are key to regulatory reform.