Abstract
This study investigates the
influence of Directors’ and Officers’ Liability Insurance (D&O insurance)
on shareholder wealth at the time of financial restatement announcements.
Utilizing a dataset comprising 226 restatement announcements from firms listed
on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) and the Taipei Exchange (TPEx) spanning
2009 to 2021, our analysis demonstrates a statistically significant negative
impact of D&O insurance coverage on shareholder wealth during these
announcements. This supports the hypothesis that moral hazard-induced
opportunism arises with D&O insurance coverage. Nevertheless, this
detrimental effect is less significant in firms with strong other external
monitoring mechanisms, such as active financial analyst coverage, substantial
institutional investor ownership, and extensive media attention. These findings
suggest that robust oversight can attenuate the potential negative
repercussions associated with D&O insurance. Our research contributes to a
deeper understanding of the role of D&O insurance within the framework of
corporate information disclosure quality and its economic implications on
financial restatements.
JEL classification numbers: G14, G22, G34, M41.
Keywords: Directors’ and Officers’ Liability Insurance, Financial Restatements,
Corporate Governance, Moral Hazard, External Monitoring.