On Requiring Public Companies to Disclose Political Spending

Abstract

Mandatory disclosure is a central feature of securities regulation in the United States, yet there is little agreement about how to determine precisely what public companies should be required to disclose. This lack of consensus explains much of the disagreement about whether the Securities and Exchange Commission should require public companies to disclose political spending.

To resolve the political spending disclosure debate I therefore begin by considering the more general question of how to evaluate any proposed mandatory disclosure requirement. I show why the presumption should be against adding a new disclosure requirement, and then identify the kinds of evidence that should be sufficient to overcome this presumption. Applying this new analytic framework to the political spending disclosure debate—and basing this analysis in part on previously unpublished empirical findings—shows that public companies should not be required to disclose political spending.