Article-Quality Executive Summary
A504 Team Project – Fall 2022
Required: Over next several weeks, your team will craft an article-quality executive summary about whether, how, and why to modify a recent Proposed Rule by the SEC, “The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors.” This Proposed Rule specifies several new and controversial requirements that could be implemented “as-is”, could be modified, or could be scratched entirely.
Ultimately, your team will hand in an executive summary that persuasively explains what ought to happen with regard to each of the major attestation provisions so as to best advance the mission of the SEC, which is “… to protect investors; maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets; and facilitate capital formation. The SEC strives to promote a market environment that is worthy of the public’s trust” . This final deliverable will account for 60% of your team’s grade.
Process: Your team has two milestones that are preliminary deliverables, with each milestone accounting for 20% of your team’s grade. While you can consult any academic or popular press article to finalize your recommendations, you must study and reflect on the content in the SEC’s Proposed Rule as well as with content in the four comment letters identified below:
1. Comment letter from the Center for Audit Quality.
2. Comment letter from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
3. Comment letter from the Texas Pipeline Association.
4. Comment letter from the CFA Institute
URLs
1. https://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-10-22/s71022-20131819-302262.pdf
2. https://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-10-22/s71022-20131892-302347.pdf
3. https://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-10-22/s71022-20131968-302428.pdf
4. https://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-10-22/s71022-20135484-306363.pdf
Hints: Your team will score more points if it does well on the following four dimensions. You might want to make each dimension a separate paragraph of your summary, but that is not necessary.
1. Your summary will concisely inform the reader about the key attestation changes in the Proposed Rule and how these changes are intended to advance the SEC’s mission.
2. It will identify and explain what your team believes to be one to two major likely upsides of the Proposed Rule’s major attestation requirements with regard to the SEC’s mission.
3. It will identify and explain what your team believes to be one to two major likely downsides of the Proposed Rule’s major attestation requirements with regard to the SEC’s mission.
4. The remainder of your executive summary should be a persuasive editorial. Convincingly assent to or dissent from the most paramount facets of Proposed Rules new attestation requirements, explaining why your plan likely would best advance the SEC’s mission.
Due Dates
Sunday, September 25th 11:59 pm
20% of the project points. Write a memo to Profs Chatterton and Peecher – in good form – that Identifies two academic studies and two popular business press articles that your team will use to develop its executive summary.
Provide complete citations in a proper format, including the DOI number if available. We must be able to easily find the articles you cite with your reference information. If we cannot, there will be a penalty.
For each source, type up (you can cut and paste) a compelling quotation. It needs to be a phrase or sentence or two. We need to be able to easily verify the quotation, so include the page number.
Sunday, October 2nd, 11:59 pm
20% of the project points. Write a memo to Profs Chatterton and Peecher – in good form – that briefly identifies what your team sees as being:
1. The two most important suggestions in each of the four comment letters.
2. What your team sees as the key upsides to these two most important suggestions.
3. What your team sees as the key downsides to these two most important suggestions.
Sunday, October 9th 11:59 pm
60% of the project points. Your finished executive summary is due.
Parameters: The body of your final paper will be good form article submission that is minimum of three and maximum of five pages, using double-spaced paragraphs and standard font sizes. If your paper does not fit these parameters, a minimum of 20% will be deducted.
References: Provide a properly formatted list of references at the end of your paper. The references do not count against your page limit. Your team must cite the Concept Release and the Comment Letter you use plus at least two academic papers (articles or unpublished working papers), and at least two popular business press articles.
