A nationwide study co-authored by a UC San Diego professor published this year says that legal violations by corporations increased and the fines they were assessed spiked when local newspapers went away. The larger fines suggest companies had become bolder in breaking the law. The researchers found a broad array of increased violations involving securities, environmental, consumer protection and workplace safety laws, among others.
“Thus, our study provides a comprehensive analysis of the effect of local newspapers on firms’ misconduct,” said the report, which was also authored by Jonas Heese of the Harvard Business School and Caspar David Peter, Associate Professor of Financial Accounting at RSM