Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
5-2019
Abstract
The SEC published the plain English handbook in 1998 with the objective of providing preparers of financial disclosures with a guide to using well-established techniques to create clearer and more informative disclosure documents. The handbook provides various recommendations to preparers of disclosure documents. In this study, I examine and systematically synthesize the extent behavioural research literature that investigates the impact of implementing these recommendations on investors. I do so by developing a framework to systematically examine relevant studies. Overall, the analysis provides important insights from a behavioural perspective into how and why investors react to various recommendations in the SEC’s plain English handbook. My study provides insights to investors, and other stakeholders about how/why key recommendations in the handbook can influence investor judgments. It also provides regulators with insights into how recommendations contained in the handbook are consistent with its stated objective of making disclosures more accessible and easily understandable.
Keywords
Readability, plain English, disclosure language
Discipline
Accounting | Corporate Finance | English Language and Literature
Research Areas
Corporate Reporting and Disclosure
Publication
Accountancy Business and the Public Interest
Volume
18
First Page
66
Last Page
80
ISSN
1745-7718
Publisher
AABA
Citation
GOH, Clarence.
Recommendations from SEC’s plain English handbook: Perspectives from behavioral research. (2019). Accountancy Business and the Public Interest. 18, 66-80.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soa_research/1807
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
http://visar.csustan.edu/aaba/Goh2019.pdf