Policy analyses and survey experiments reveal worsening macroeconomic outcomes under state asset disclosure laws, suggesting strict transparency mandates deter business investment.
Key Points
To assess the macroeconomic impacts of state-level legislative financial asset disclosure and recusal laws and evaluate the behavioral mechanisms driving business responses.
Compiled and analyzed state-level policy data on financial asset disclosure and recusal laws across all 50 US states alongside macroeconomic performance metrics.
Conducted two pre-registered survey experiments with small business owners (N=2000) to test how disclosure stringency alters business decisions.
State-level legislative asset disclosure mandates are associated with a worsening macroeconomic environment.
Stringent asset disclosure requirements directly deter business investment and firm expansion among surveyed small business owners.