Episode Details

Disclosure requirements on publicly traded companies have mounted over the last few decades, making for heftier annual reports and financial filings. But is all of this disclosure helping investors? In this session, I start by looking at the bloat in financial filings (using 10-Ks and S-1s to illustrate) and the reasons (primarily regulatory and accounting disclosure mandates). I look at why this increased disclosure is not helping investors, arguing that information overload and a misunderstanding of audience & mission are contributing. Finally, I set out four principles on disclosure - less is more, know your audience, focus on the future (not the past) and triggered disclosures (where only a subset of firms are required to disclose) that should govern disclosure rules, in general, and the coming debate about ESG disclosure, in particular.
Slides: http://www.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/pdfiles/blog/Disclosure.pdf

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