PhD defence S. (Stephanie) van der Veen

Below is a brief summary of the dissertation:

This dissertation examines how companies share relevant information with investors, employees, and other stakeholders. It focuses on situations in which corporate communication changes in response to new regulation, as well as economic and technological developments.
The research examines three contemporary settings involving corporate communication. First, together with Edith Leung and Jeroen Koenraadt, we examine how companies explain why they report a loss in a given period. The results show that these textual explanations contain important additional information about the causes of a loss. In doing so, these explanations provide relevant information about a company’s future performance.
Second, together with Edith Leung, Jeroen Koenraadt, and Nico Lehmann, we examine regulation in several U.S. states that requires companies to include salary ranges in job postings. These rules increase the availability of salary information and are associated with a decrease in gender pay gaps.
Third, I examine how proposed European regulation on artificial intelligence, the EU AI Act, affects whether and how companies voluntarily disclose about AI. The results show that companies adjust their communication on AI based on their AI-related disclosure before the proposed regulation. 
Taken together, the dissertation shows that corporate communication is constantly evolving. To continue to understand what information companies share and what stakeholders can learn from it, it is therefore important to take into account changes in the economy, technology, and regulation.