Study Shows EPA’s Unintended Effect on Voluntary Climate Disclosures by Public Firms
Public firms disclose significantly less about environmental risks when under EPA scrutiny, new research by Mark Zakota shows. His study highlights how such oversight may undermine SEC climate-transparency efforts—unless firms improve governance or agencies better coordinate enforcement.
EPA Scrutiny and Voluntary Environmental Disclosures
Market participants have called on the SEC to address the lack of disclosures about firms’ environmental impacts, investments, and exposures. However, the frictions that obstruct the flow of environmental information are not well understood. I shed light on these frictions by examining whether scrutiny by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) restricts the firm’s voluntary environmental disclosures in earnings conference calls.
20 Faculty Teams Awarded Smith Internal Research Grants
The Smith School has awarded 2025 Smith Internal Research Grants to 20 faculty-led teams to support high-impact research in areas including AI, entrepreneurship, labor markets, corporate communication, and online learning, fostering innovation across disciplines.
New Faculty Strengthen Smith’s ‘Grand Challenges’ Strategy
Balaji Padmanabhan is among the earliest professors to bring machine learning into an MBA program. Sining Song’s research explores environmental-to-fintech-related factors in supply chain sustainability. And Agustin Hurtado recently analyzed 87 million minority-borrower accounts in a study showing minority bank ownership reduces information frictions and improves credit allocations.These professors are among the nine new tenure-track faculty members and three full time professional track faculty joining the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business this fall.