The Effect of SEC Disclosure Regulation Regarding Audit Committees' Financial Experts on Foreign Private Issuers Cross-Listed on U.S. Securities Exchanges

This paper investigates the economic consequences of the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) disclosure regulation by examining market reactions of foreign private issuers (FPI) to events related to the SEC's requirement for a firm to disclose whether its audit committee has at least one financial expert. Using U.S. and home country stock market returns from an FPI, the findings from this study suggest that an FPI traded in U.S. capital markets and subject to SEC regulatory requirements experience negative returns around event dates related to this requirement. Their returns in U.S. markets are also more negatively impacted by the audit committee financial expert disclosure regulation than are the returns in their home countries. Additionally, this study extends research by DeFond, Hann, and Hu (2005), Zhang (2007), and Litvak (2007) by examining the SEC's mandatory disclosures of financial experts on company audit committees.