Abstract
This thesis examines the impact of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) comment letter process and whether comment letter resolution has any effect on the information environment of the Dow 30 firms. The information environment is examined by measuring analyst forecasts, market micro-structure, and the probability of informed trades in the days surrounding the public release of SEC comment threads. We use OLS with a two way fixed effects model to conclude that the public release of comment threads does not make analysts more accurate or change a firm’s micro-structure trading environment, but does reduce the probability that investors can trade on private information. Thus the public release of comment threads reduces opportunity for insider trading without measurably changing the trading environment.