Accounting Papers

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of this Version

9-2006

Publication Source

Journal of Accounting Research

Volume

44

Issue

4

Start Page

791

Last Page

814

DOI

10.1111/j.1475-679X.2006.00216.x

Abstract

In this paper we investigate a firm's decision to redact proprietary information from its material contract filings. Information redaction results when the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) grants a firm's request to withhold information from investors in its material contract filings, presumably because the information is proprietary. We hypothesize that when firms redact information, measures of adverse selection deteriorate. That is, the redaction of proprietary information from material contracts should be associated with: a larger adverse selection component of the bid-ask spread, reductions in market depth, and lower market turnover. In addition, we conjecture that the decision to redact depends on whether the firm plans on raising capital, the competitiveness of the firm's industry, and the performance of the firm. Overall the results of our analysis generally support our predictions. We find that when firms redact information, contemporaneous measures of the adverse selection component of the bid-ask spread rise, and market depth and share turnover deteriorate; this suggests an increase in adverse selection. We also find firms are less likely to redact when they issue long-term debt and are more likely to redact when they are in a competitive industry or experience losses.

Copyright/Permission Statement

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: VERRECCHIA, R. E. and WEBER, J. (2006), Redacted Disclosure. Journal of Accounting Research, 44: 791–814., which has been published in final form at DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-679X.2006.00216.x This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving http://olabout.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-820227.html#terms.

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Date Posted: 27 November 2017

This document has been peer reviewed.