Regulation

Joel Seligman's article examines the historical debate surrounding the Securities and Exchange Commission's mandatory corporate disclosure system, focusing on George Stigler's influential 1964 critique and subsequent discussions. While acknowledging Stigler's role in sparking important questions about regulatory necessity, Seligman argues that critics often underestimated the historical evidence of securities fraud and the need for public market confidence, ultimately defending the continued relevance of mandated disclosure in securities regulation.

Hamid Mehran examines the governance failures at Boeing that led to safety issues with its aircraft and proposes several measures to improve the company's safety culture and accountability. Mehran suggests enhancing board accountability through increased disclosure requirements, improving FAA oversight, fostering a culture that prioritizes safety and employee concerns, and restructuring employee compensation to incentivize teamwork and vigilance in detecting safety issues.

Thomas Malthouse explores the skewed financial models that lead American railroads to underinvest in maintenance and profitable expansion, producing delays, derailments, and environmental catastrophes such as those that occurred in East Palestine, Ohio, in 2023.

In new research, Felix Montag, Alina Sagimuldina, and Christoph Winter study the impact of mandatory price disclosure (MPD) for sellers in the German retail fuel market to determine under what market conditions MPD can reduce prices for consumers.

Colleen Honigsberg and Robert J. Jackson, Jr. write that Exxon Mobil’s decision to sue its own investors over a shareholder proposal threatens to enervate an admittedly imperfect but ultimately valuable mechanism that provides shareholder feedback to corporate managers and helps both parties negotiate better governance outcomes.

Randy Priem reviews the current discussions about fortifying the independence of determination committees deciding whether a credit event took place for single-name credit default swaps. He offers several possible strategies.

The following is an excerpt from the book Law, Development and Regulatory Globalisation The Case of the World Bank in India's Electricity Sector, by Adithya Chintapanti.

ProMarket Student Editor Surya Gowda speaks with Georgetown University postdoctoral fellow Katie J. Wells about her new book with Kafui Attoh and Declan Cullen, Disrupting D.C.: The Rise of Uber and the Fall of the City. Wells discusses how Uber stepped in to solve local government failures, but introduced new problems in the process.

Hamid Mehran discusses the recent report on sexual harassment and misconduct at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, highlighting the potential negative impact on financial stability due to the departure of experienced examiners and supervisors. Mehran suggests adopting a clawback scheme in employment contracts for senior employees to foster a healthier work environment and protect the FDIC's most valuable asset, its human talent.

The following is an excerpt from Despoina Mantzari's book, "Courts, Regulators, and the Scrutiny of Economic Evidence," now out at Oxford University Press.