"When Spotlights Fade: Local Newspaper Closures and Financial Advisor M" by Zhi Li, Qiyuan Peng et al.
 

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-26-2025

Abstract

Using individual records of about 950,000 financial advisors, we find that the probability and intensity of financial advisor misconduct significantly increase after local newspaper closures. The impact is more pronounced in counties with a higher proportion of seniors, minorities, and individuals with lower education levels. Male advisors are more likely to commit misconduct following newspaper closures than female advisors. The sensitivity of advisors’ job turnover to misconduct decreases after closures, suggesting a lower cost of committing misconduct. Our evidence indicates that local newspapers play a distinct role in mitigating financial advisor misconduct, as media exposure raises the costs of misbehavior.

Comments

This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis in 2025 following peer review. This article may not exactly replicate the final published version. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available online at https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022109025101749.

The Creative Commons license below applies only to this version of the article.

Peer Reviewed

1

Copyright

The authors

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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