HKU Jockey Club Enterprise Sustainability Global Research Institute
World-Class Hub for Sustainability
Virtual Seminar
HKU Governance and Sustainability Seminar Series
Internalizing Externalities through Public Pressure: Transparency Regulation for Fracking and Water Quality
Date and Time
Thursday, May 8, 2025 · 4:00 PM HKT
Format
Online (75-minute online seminar)
Speaker & Moderator
Speaker
Prof. Christian Leuz
University of Chicago
Booth School of Business
Christian Leuz is the Charles F. Pohl Distinguished Service Professor of Accounting and Finance at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. He is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Research Fellow at the Center for Economic Policy Research and Leibniz Institute SAFE, EPIC Scholar, a Fellow at the European Corporate Governance Institute, Goethe Universität Frankfurt’s Center for Financial Studies, and of the CESifo Research Network. He is a co-organizer and a member of the Clark Center on Global Markets European Economic Experts Panel.
He studies the role of disclosure and transparency in capital markets and other settings, including sustainability and ESG; the economic effects of regulation; international accounting; corporate governance and finance. His work has been published in many top academic journals including Science, Journal of Finance, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Accounting & Economics, and Review of Financial Studies.
He has received several awards and honors, including the Chicago Booth Class of 2023 Phoenix Award, the 2022 ACA Prize in Financial Governance, the 2016 and the 2014 Distinguished Contribution to the Accounting Literature Awards, and a Humboldt Research Award in 2012. He is recognized as a “Highly Cited Researcher” by Thomson Reuters and was included in their list of “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds” five years in a row (from 2014 to 2018). Professor Leuz is a senior editor for the Journal of Accounting Research and has served on many editorial boards, including the Journal of Accounting & Economics, The Accounting Review, the Journal of Business, Finance and Accounting, and the Review of Accounting Studies.
Born in Germany, Professor Leuz earned his doctoral degree and Habilitation at the Goethe University Frankfurt. In 2024, he received an honorary doctorate (Dr. h.c.) from Maastricht University. Prior to his position at Chicago Booth, he was the Harold Stott Term Assistant Professor in Accounting at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Research Interests
Corporate disclosure and financial reporting in capital and other settings and markets; transparency regulation; corporate governance; financial markets and corporate finance; cost of capital; international accounting; securities regulation; ESG and sustainability reporting.
Academic Areas
Accounting
Speaker
Prof. Pingyang Gao
HKU Business School
Professor Gao joined HKU Business School in 2020. Until then he had been on the faculty of Chicago Booth since 2008. He also spent the fall of 2019 at Yale as a visiting professor.
His research has focused on important public policy and securities regulation issues with respect to capital markets and corporate governance. He has conducted extensive research on accounting issues in the banking industries as exposed by the financial crisis of 2007-2009, the worldwide adoption of IFRS, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 in the United States. He has also worked on various aspects of disclosure and securities regulations, in particular in the intersection of financial reporting with capital markets and corporate governance. His research has been published in all top accounting journals. He is a recipient of American Accounting Association Competitive Manuscript Award and several Best Paper awards of conferences. He is on the editorial board of Journal of Accounting Research and regularly reviews papers for major journals in accounting, finance and economics.
Gao received a bachelor’s degree from Renmin University of China in 2002, a master’s degree from Peking University in 2004, and a PhD degree from Yale University in 2008. He has received several honors, including the IBM faculty fellowship, PCL Faculty Scholar, and Centel Foundation/Robert P. Reuss Faculty Scholar. He is a member of the Edward Alexander Bouchet Graduate Honor Society at Yale University, a network of scholars who exemplify service and advocacy for students who have been traditionally underrepresented in the academia. He participates regularly in the activities of professional organizations, including AAA, AFA, AEA, and CAPANA. He is a member of Growth and Institutions organized by Tsinghua University. He is also an inactive CPA in China.
Research Interest
Accounting Standards Setting; Financial Reporting to Capital Markets; Corporate Governance; Bank Accounting; Financial Crisis
Academic Areas
Accounting and Law
About This Seminar
This seminar features Prof. Christian Leuz from University of Chicago, sharing insights from his paper titled “Internalizing Externalities through Public Pressure: Transparency Regulation for Fracking and Water Quality”.
Paper Abstract
Responding to the rise of hydraulic fracturing (HF) and risks to water quality, U.S. states mandated disclosure for HF wells. We study whether and how such targeting of corporate externalities with transparency regulation reduces environmental impact. We examine salt concentrations considered HF signatures and find significant reductions in surface water impact between 9-14%, mostly along the intensive margin. Consistent with that we document improvements in operator practices, including fewer wastewater spills. We unpack the transparency mechanism and show that transparency regulation enables social movements and increases public pressure, which in turn drives the documented changes in practices and water quality.
Bonetti, Pietro and Leuz, Christian and Michelon, Giovanna, Internalizing Externalities through Public Pressure: Transparency Regulation for Fracking and Water Quality (December 20, 2024). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4959265 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4959265
The HKU Governance and Sustainability Seminar series is organised by the HKU Jockey Club Enterprise Sustainability Global Research Institute.