Time/时间：6月15日（周四） 上午9:30-11:00
Topic/题目：Litigation Risk and Environmental Disclosure Decisions
Speaker/报告人：王秉云助理教授（弗吉尼亚大学）
Facilitator/主持人：李珊副教授
Online Conference ID/腾讯会议号：305-206-891
Abstract/摘要：We investigate the role of litigation risk in environmental disclosure decisions. We find that after a peer firm is sued for its environmental disclosures, firms provide more forward-looking (and less historical) environmental disclosures in their conference calls. Our evidence is consistent with managers seeking to minimize the risk of being sued for misrepresenting their environmental disclosures in response to a perceived increase in litigation risk. The main result persists both in a broader sample using the Kim and Skinner (2012) measure to proxy for litigation risk, and using emissions targets and historical emissions disclosures to proxy for environmental disclosure decisions. We do not find any evidence that firms respond to peers’ environmental disclosure lawsuits by changing their environmental practices, nor do we observe a disclosure response to peers’ other environmental lawsuits (not involving disclosure) or placebo event dates. Collectively, our results are consistent with firms perceiving relatively high litigation risk associated with some disclosures the SEC is considering mandating (e.g., historical emissions), and relatively low litigation risk associated with others (e.g., environmental risks and emissions targets).
About the Speaker/报告人简介：王秉云博士为弗吉尼亚大学助理教授，其在SEC执法、股东诉讼和并购领域拥有丰富的专业知识。她的研究着重于探究SEC执法和股东诉讼等经济机制如何塑造公司的信息披露实践。此外，她对会计信息在并购中的运用以及会计对资源配置的真实效果也表现出浓厚的兴趣。其研究成果已在《The Accounting Review》和《Review of Accounting Studies》等顶级期刊上发表。此外，她的研究工作还曾在国际会议上进行报告，包括AAA年会、金融经济学与会计学会议、FARS年会、哈佛IMO会议、会计研究注册报告会议以及MFA年会。