【报告主题】Comments that Count: Corporate Influence in SEC Governance Rulemaking
【主讲嘉宾】Pengfei Ye，Pamplin College of Business
【报告时间】2026年7月15日 14:00
【报告地点】会计学院106室
【内容提要】
We investigate the motivations, effectiveness, and shareholder-value implications of public firms’ attempts to influence the SEC’s governance-related rulemaking. Our analysis leverages large language model-assisted text analysis and citation tracking to examine comment letters submitted during the rulemaking process. We find that public firms predominantly submit pro-management comment letters and that these firms tend to exhibit weaker governance characteristics. Notably, public firms’ letters are more likely to be cited in final rules and lead to material changes aligned with their positions-particularly when advocating for pro-management changes. Moreover, public firms whose pro-management letters are cited in pro-management material changes experience significantly negative abnormal stock returns upon the release of the final rule. Together, these findings suggest that public firms leverage the rulemaking process to protect entrenched managerial interests at the expense of shareholder value.