
doi: 10.2139/ssrn.6556978
This study examines whether weakening employee non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) affects the flow of information to capital markets via the business press. After state laws weakened NDAs related to misconduct, treated firms exhibit a significant increase in corporate news relative to control firms. The increase is driven by non-financial news, particularly articles about legal issues and corporate social responsibility, and is concentrated among firms with large workforces and those operating in highly competitive industries. We find that articles become significantly more negative in tone, and these articles generate stronger market reactions, indicating that employees increasingly share negative information with journalists that is informative to capital markets. Using textual analysis, we document direct evidence of increased interactions between employees and journalists, with more articles citing employees as sources, particularly in news about legal issues. Taken together, our findings illustrate that the business press serves as an important channel through which employee information reaches capital markets, and that employment NDAs can impede this channel.
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 0 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Average | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Average | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Average |
