Seminar (Dept. of Accounting)

Title：Whispering Progress: Fear of Automation and Voluntary Disclosure

Speaker: Guoman She, Assistant Professor, University of Hong Kong

Time：10:00-11:30, April 18, 2025 (Friday)

Venue：Room 706, Mingde Business Building

Language：Chinese & English

ABSTRACT:

We provide evidence that firms tailor their disclosure policies to achieve the objectives of task automation and workforce stability. Using local cable news transcripts to measure the fear of job displacement due to automation, we find that firms reduce public disclosures about their automation strategies when automation fear intensifies. The diminished disclosure is more pronounced in industries with occupations more susceptible to displacement and when unfavorable employee reactions are more likely. For identification, we exploit two quasi-natural experiments—layoffs by local high-tech firms and the introduction of ChatGPT. We also find suggestive evidence that firms increase private communication with investors to compensate for the reduction in public information provision. Overall, our findings shed light on the trade-offs between maintaining transparency and mitigating adverse employee responses in the era of rapid advancement in automation technologies.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY:

Guoman She is an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong.  He received his PhD degree from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2020 and his bachelor degree from Sun Yat-Sen University in 2013. His research focuses on the use of financial and non-financial information in inter-firm contracts and supply chain management. His work has been published in top academic journals such as Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting and Economics, The Accounting Review, Review of Accounting Studies, and Management Science.