Does the Financial Experience of SEC Regional Directors Impact SEC Investigations?

This paper is based on my dissertation completed at the University of Arkansas. The author is grateful for the helpful suggestions and guidance from my dissertation committee: Jonathan Shipman (chair), Cory Cassell, and Zac Wiebe. The author thank Suraj Srinivasan (Department Editor), an anonymous associate editor, two anonymous reviewers, Kris Allee, Chelsea Anderson, TJ Atwood, Dennis Beresford, Brian Burnett, Andy Call, John Campbell, Eric Condie, Liz Cowle, Mike Crawley, Dave Farber, Al Ghosh, Erin Henry, Charley Irons, Gyeongsim Kim, Tyler Kleppe, Phil Lamoreaux, Beverly Larson, Greg Martin, Terry Mason, Lauren Matkaluk, Robbie Moon, Gary Peters, Caleb Rawson, Fellipe Raymundo, David Reppenhagen, Vern Richardson, Nikki Skinner, Sam Tiras, Kristen Valentine, Scott Vandervelde, Ben Whipple, Kangkang Zhang (discussant), workshop participants at the University of Arkansas, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Kansas State University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, the University of Georgia, and participants at the 2022 AAA Annual Meeting for helpful comments and suggestions. The author also thank several current and former SEC regional directors (who wish to remain anonymous) for sharing insights into the SEC’s regional offices and investigation processes. The author is grateful to Terrence Blackburne, Nathan Herrmann, Eric Holzman, John Kepler, Matt Kubic, Nathan Marshall, Phillip Quinn, Brent Schmidt, Daniel Taylor, and Sara Toynbee for providing data on SEC investigations and to Jason Luetkenhaus (SEC Lead FOIA Research Specialist) for providing insights into the SEC’s records and data.