[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/jecper/v21y2007i1p91-116.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Goals and Promise of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act

Author

Listed:
  • John C. Coates IV
Abstract
The primary goal of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was to fix auditing of U.S. public companies, consistent with its full, official name: the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002. By consensus, auditing had been working poorly, and increasingly so. The most important, and most promising, part of Sarbanes-Oxley was the creation of a unique, quasi-public institution to oversee and regulate auditing, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). In controversial section 404, the law also created new disclosure-based incentives for firms to spend money on internal controls, above increases that would have occurred after the corporate scandals of the early 2000s. In exchange for these higher costs, which have already fallen substantially, Sarbanes-Oxley promises a variety of long-term benefits. Investors will face a lower risk of losses from fraud and theft, and benefit from more reliable financial reporting, greater transparency, and accountability. Public companies will pay a lower cost of capital, and the economy will benefit because of a better allocation of resources and faster growth. Sarbanes-Oxley remains a work in progress -- section 404 in particular was implemented too aggressively - but reformers should push for continued improvements in its implementation, by PCAOB, rather than for repeal of the legislation itself.

Suggested Citation

  • John C. Coates IV, 2007. "The Goals and Promise of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(1), pages 91-116, Winter.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:jecper:v:21:y:2007:i:1:p:91-116
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/jep.21.1.91
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jep.21.1.91
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vidhi Chhaochharia & Yaniv Grinstein, 2007. "Corporate Governance and Firm Value: The Impact of the 2002 Governance Rules," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(4), pages 1789-1825, August.
    2. Edward Glaeser & Simon Johnson & Andrei Shleifer, 2001. "Coase Versus the Coasians," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(3), pages 853-899.
    3. Romano, Roberta, 1991. "The Shareholder Suit: Litigation without Foundation?," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(1), pages 55-87, Spring.
    4. Michael Halling & Marco Pagano & Otto Randl & Josef Zechner, 2004. "Where is the Market? Evidence from Cross-Listings in the U.S," CSEF Working Papers 129, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy, revised 01 Dec 2006.
    5. Jeremy C. Stein, 1989. "Efficient Capital Markets, Inefficient Firms: A Model of Myopic Corporate Behavior," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 104(4), pages 655-669.
    6. Kraakman, Reiner H, 1986. "Gatekeepers: The Anatomy of a Third-Party Enforcement Strategy," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 2(1), pages 53-104, Spring.
    7. Gilles Hilary & Clive Lennox, 2005. "The Credibility of Self-Regulation: Evidence from the Accounting Profession's Peer Review," Post-Print hal-00482306, HAL.
    8. Shavell, S., 1986. "The judgment proof problem," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 45-58, June.
    9. Hail, Luzi & Leuz, Christian, 2009. "Cost of capital effects and changes in growth expectations around U.S. cross-listings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(3), pages 428-454, September.
    10. Admati, Anat R & Pfleiderer, Paul, 2000. "Forcing Firms to Talk: Financial Disclosure Regulation and Externalities," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 13(3), pages 479-519.
    11. Leuz, Christian & Triantis, Alexander & Yue Wang, Tracy, 2008. "Why do firms go dark? Causes and economic consequences of voluntary SEC deregistrations," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2-3), pages 181-208, August.
    12. repec:aei:rpbook:51416 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Brian J. Bushee & Christian Leuz, 2003. "Economic Consequences of SEC Disclosure Regulation," Center for Financial Institutions Working Papers 02-24, Wharton School Center for Financial Institutions, University of Pennsylvania.
    14. James C. Brau & Stanley E. Fawcett, 2006. "Initial Public Offerings: An Analysis of Theory and Practice," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(1), pages 399-436, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. Hans B. Christensen & Luzi Hail & Christian Leuz, 2021. "Mandatory CSR and sustainability reporting: economic analysis and literature review," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 1176-1248, September.
    4. Michael Minnis & Nemit Shroff, 2017. "Why regulate private firm disclosure and auditing?," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(5), pages 473-502, July.
    5. Craig Doidge & G. Andrew Karolyi & René M. Stulz, 2010. "Why Do Foreign Firms Leave U.S. Equity Markets?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(4), pages 1507-1553, August.
    6. Luigi Zingales, 2009. "The Future of Securities Regulation," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 391-425, May.
    7. Fernandes, Nuno & Lel, Ugur & Miller, Darius P., 2010. "Escape from New York: The market impact of loosening disclosure requirements," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(2), pages 129-147, February.
    8. Doidge, Craig & Karolyi, G. Andrew & Stulz, Rene, 2008. "Why Do Foreign Firms Leave U.S. Equity Markets? An Analysis of Deregistrations under SEC Exchange Act Rule 12h-6," Working Paper Series 2008-14, Ohio State University, Charles A. Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics.
    9. Christensen, Hans B. & Liu, Lisa Yao & Maffett, Mark, 2020. "Proactive financial reporting enforcement and shareholder wealth," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(2).
    10. Stefan Arping & Zacharias Sautner, 2010. "Did the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 make Firms less Opaque? Evidence from Analyst Earnings Forecasts," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 10-129/2/DSF 5, Tinbergen Institute.
    11. Li, Xi, 2014. "The Sarbanes–Oxley act and cross-listed foreign private issuers," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 21-40.
    12. Dhammika Dharmapala, 2016. "Estimating the Compliance Costs of Securities Regulation: A Bunching Analysis of Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404(b)," CESifo Working Paper Series 6180, CESifo.
    13. Cosset, Jean-Claude & Meknassi, Siham, 2013. "Does cross-listing in the US foster mergers and acquisitions and increase target shareholder wealth?," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 54-73.
    14. Gupta, Atul & Raman, Kartik & Shang, Chenguang, 2018. "Social capital and the cost of equity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 102-117.
    15. Paolo Polidori & D?sir?e Teobaldelli, 2012. "Corporate Criminal Liability and Optimal Behavior by Firms.Internal Monitoring Devices versus Managerial Incentives," Working Papers 1216, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Department of Economics, Society & Politics - Scientific Committee - L. Stefanini & G. Travaglini, revised 2012.
    16. Kashefi Pour, Eilnaz & Lasfer, Meziane, 2013. "Why do companies delist voluntarily from the stock market?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 4850-4860.
    17. Michael Ewens & Joan Farre-Mensa, 2022. "Private or Public Equity? The Evolving Entrepreneurial Finance Landscape," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 271-293, November.
    18. Mayur, Manas & Kumar, Manoj, 2006. "An Empirical Investigation of Going Public Decision of Indian Companies," MPRA Paper 1801, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Abigail Allen & Melissa F. Lewis‐Western & Kristen Valentine, 2022. "The Innovation and Reporting Consequences of Financial Regulation for Young Life‐Cycle Firms," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(1), pages 45-95, March.
    20. 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.

    More about this item

    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:aea:jecper:v:21:y:2007:i:1:p:91-116. 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: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.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.