Financial Market Misconduct & Regulation

Expert Witness: I have served as an expert witness on numerous litigation cases involving matters that include but are not limited to tax evasion, improper disclosure, financial accounting fraud, market manipulation (price manipulation, marking the close, layering, spoofing, wash trading, aggressive trading, pre-arranged trading, among others, using SMARTS computerized algorithmic technology / RegTech), hedge fund misconduct, mutual fund misconduct, valuation and disclosure in mergers and acquisitions, cancellation of dividends, market efficiency and damages, wrongful dismissal, and valuation of private enterprises backed by venture capital and private equity funds.  Details are available on request.

Advisory work: I have advised regulatory bodies in North America, Europe, and Australasia on financial market regulation, including matters pertaining to trading rules, surveillance, venture capital programs, taxation, and crowdfunding legislation.  Details are available on request.

Pro bono work: I worked with the Democracy Forward Foundation, offering advice on a brief pertaining to the NASDAQ Diversity Rule, mostly on the body of work that links diversity to fraud (pursuant to our 2015 AMJ paper).  For some background on this matter, see here and here. 

1. Cumming, Douglas J. and Ji, Shan and Sala, Carlo, Option Market Manipulation 

2. Alexander, Carol and Chen, Xi and Cumming, Douglas J., Elsevier, Coordinated Journals and Citation Patterns 

   1. We will post an update of the paper on SSRN once the system allows us to do so...

3. Cumming, Douglas J. and Li, Yuan and Yu, Yimeng, 2023. "Stock Market Manipulation and Corporate Venture Capital Investments" 

   1. Presented at the Citrus Finance Conference, University of California, Riverside, the University of New South Wales, and the University of Technology, Sydney.

4. Cumming, Douglas J. and Ji, Shan and Tarsalewska, Monika, 2023. "Market Manipulation and ESG Incidents"

   1. Presented at the 4th Global Chinese Accounting Association Summit, Curtin University, Perth, Academy of Sustainable Finance, Accounting, Accountability & Governance 2nd Annual Conference (ASFAAG), Bayes Business School, City University of London, Capital University of Economics and Business (CUEB), Beijing, Finance, Economics, Management and IT Business (FEMIB) Conference, Financial Management Association, Europe, Annual Conference, Lyon, Hawkes Center Workshop on Sustainability and Finance, Shanghai Green Finance Conference, Swansea University, Huddersfield Business School, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, INSPER, São Paulo Brazil, ISAFE Conference, Saigon Vietnam, Keynote, Annual International Undergraduate Finance Research Conference (IUFRC), Sri Lanka, Unisinos, São Leopoldo, Brazil, International Conference on Global Business and Societal Reset, India, University of Bradford's Annual Postgraduate Conference, University of South Carolina Darla Moore School of Business, and the University of Western Australia.

5. Akter, Maimuna and Cumming, Douglas J. and Ji, Shan and Verdoliva, Vincenzo, Market Manipulation and Corporate Culture (April 10, 2022).  

   1. Presented at FMA Atlanta, Oct 2022.

6. Cumming, D.J., Javakhadze, D., Suleymanov, M., 2023. Political Connections and Allocation of Government Contracts: International Evidence

   1. Presented at the Eastern Finance Association Annual Meetings held virtual Apr. 01-04, 2021; at the Financial Intermediation Research Society Annual Meetings held virtual Jun. 04-06, 2021; at the FMA Annual Meetings in Denver, CO USA held Oct. 20-23, 2021; and at the Southern Finance Association Annual Meetings in Captiva Island, FL USA held Nov. 17-21, 2021.

Other working papers in progress (details available on request).

1. Douglas Cumming, Douglas, Fanyu Lu, Limin Xu, Chia-Feng Yu (Jeffrey), 2025. Does stakeholder orientation mitigate shareholder-employee conflicts? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment, Journal of Corporate Finance 102736.

2. Andres, C., D. Bazhutov, D. Cumming, G. Köchling, and P. Limbach, 2024. “Does Speculative News Hurt Productivity? Evidence from Takeover Rumors” Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, forthcoming.

3. Carè, R., and D. Cumming, 2024. "Technology and automation in financial trading: a bibliometric review" Research in International Business and Finance, forthcoming.

4. Akter, M., D.J. Cumming, and S. Ji, 2023. "Natural Disasters and Market Manipulation" Journal of Banking and Finance,  153, 106883.

5. Aitken, M.J., D.J. Cumming, F. Zhan, 2023. "Algorithmic Trading and Market Quality: International Evidence of the Impact of Errors in Colocation Dates" Journal of Banking and Finance 151, 106843.

   1. We show that a 2021 JFQA paper uses dates on colocation (an exchange rents out space for traders to put a server at the exchange to speed up trades) that are wrong.  The Exhibits in our Online Appendix in our paper provide full documentation.  Also, the JFQA authors were informed about the errors prior to putting their paper in print, as documented in our Online Appendix.  The first exhibit shows that the authors even changed their incorrect source to a new incorrect source after we informed the JFQA - one that is misleading and truncated.

6. Cumming, D.J., Firth, C., Gathergood, J., Stewart, N. 2023 Covid, Work-from-Home, and the Risk of Securities Misconduct European Financial Management, forthcoming. [ABS 3]

   1. Featured in Matt Levine's Bloomberg Column May 16, 2023 

   2. 2023 EFM Best Paper Award, announced at the EFMA Conference in Lisbon, June 28, 2024.

7. Bernales, A., Beuermann, D.W., D.J. Cumming, and C. Olid, 2023. “Blue-Collar Crime and Finance” Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions, and Money, forthcoming. [ABS 3]

8. Cumming, D.J., L. Hass, L.A. Myers, and M. Tarsalewska, 2022. "Does Venture Capital Backing Improve Disclosure Controls and Procedures? Evidence from Management’s Post-IPO Disclosures" Journal of Business Ethics, forthcoming.

   1. An earlier version was distributed on SSRN as “Venture Capital and Disclosure of Material Weaknesses in Internal Control” 

   2. British Academy of Management Annual Conference Best Paper Award

9. Cumming, D.J., B.C. Tingle, and F. Zhan, 2021. “For Whom (and For When) is the Firm Governed? The Effect of Changes in Corporate Fiduciary Duties on Tax Strategies and Earnings Management,” European Financial Management, 27(5): 775-813. [ABS 3]

10. Cumming, D.J., L. Hornuf, M. Karami, and D. Schweizer, 2021. “Disentangling Crowdfunding from Fraudfunding” Journal of Business Ethics, forthcoming [ABS 3 FT]

11. Alperovych, Y., D. Cumming, V. Czellar, A. Groh, 2021. "M&A Rumors about Unlisted Firms" Journal of Financial Economics, 142(3), 1324-1339. [ABS 4* FT]

    1. Online Appendix to accompany paper

12. Cumming, D.J., 2021.  What Does it Take? Tips on Research and Publishing at the 25th Anniversary of the Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Corporate Finance, article 101861. 

    1. In section 3 of this editorial, I discuss examples of misconduct in the academic publishing game, and not just author misconduct, but also editor and publisher misconduct.  The disturbing but true stories in this published version are 'blinded and truncated' so that I could put it in print.  Hopefully this paper helps future authors navigate the system to better pick where to submit and things to do (and not do).

13. Cumming, D.J., S. Ji, R. Peter, M. Tarsalewska, 2020. “Market Manipulation and Innovation” Journal of Banking and Finance, Volume 120, 105957 [ABS3]

14. Akyildirim, E., S. Corbet, D.J, Cumming, B. Lucey, A. Sensoy, 2020. “Riding the Wave of Crypto-Exuberance: The Potential Misusage of Corporate Blockchain Announcements” Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 159, 120191. [ABS 3]

15. Corbet, S., Cumming, D.J., Lucey, B., Peat, M., Vigne, S., 2020. “The Destabilising Effects of Cryptocurrency Cybercriminality” Economics Letters, 191, 108741. [ABS 3]

16. Cumming, D.J., S. Ji, S.A. Johan, M. Tarsalewska, 2020. “End-of-Day Price Manipulation and M&As”  British Journal of Management, 31, 184–205. [ABS 4].  See also this cool video about the paper.

17. Cumming, D.J., and S. Johan, 2019. “Capital-Market Effects of Securities Regulation: Prior Conditions, Implementation, and Enforcement Revisited” Finance Research Letters, 31, 425-435. [ABS 2]  

    1. This paper comments on some improper developments in the literature that developed from our 2011 paper in the Journal of Financial Economics (see below).

18. Bilinski, Pawel and Cumming, Douglas J. and Hass, Lars Helge and Stathopoulos, Konstantinos and Walker, Martin, 2019.  “Strategic Distortions in Analyst Target Prices in the Presence of Short-Term Institutional Investors” Accounting and Business Research, 49 (3), 305-341. [ABS 3]

19. Cumming, D.J., S.A. Johan, and R. Peter, 2018. “Developments in Financial Institutions, Governance, Agency Costs, and Misconduct” Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions, & Money 54, 1-14. [ABS 3]

20. Cumming, D.J, A. Groh, and S. Johan, 2018. “Same Rules, Different Enforcement: Market Abuse in Europe” Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions, & Money, 54, 130-151. [ABS 3]

21. Cumming, D.J., W. Hou, and E. Wu., 2018. “Exchange Trading Rules, Governance, and the Trading Location of Cross-Listed Stocks” European Journal of Finance, 24, 1453-1484. [ABS 3]

22. Aitken, M., D.J. Cumming, and F. Zhan, 2017. “Trade Size, High Frequency Trading, and Co-location around the World” European Journal of Finance, 23(7-9), 781-801. [ABS 3]

23. Cumming, D.J., W. Hou, and E. Wu, 2017. “The Value of Home Country Governance for Cross-Listed Stocks” European Journal of Finance, 23(7-9), 674-706 [ABS 3]

24. Cumming, D.J., S. Johan, and D. Schwiezer, 2017. “Information Systems, Agency Problems, and Fraud,” Information Systems Frontiers 19, 421–424. [ABS 3]

25. Chen, J., Cumming, D.J., W. Hou and E. Lee, 2016. “CEO Accountability for Corporate Fraud: Evidence from the Split Share Structure Reform in China” Journal of Business Ethics, 138, 787–806. [ABS 3 FT]

26. Chen, J., Cumming, D.J., W. Hou, and E. Lee, 2016. “Does the External Monitoring Effect of Financial Analysts Deter Corporate Fraud in China?” Journal of Business Ethics, 134(4), 727-742 [ABS 3 FT]

27. Cumming, D.J., W. Hou, and E. Lee, 2016. “Business Ethics and Finance in Greater China: Synthesis and Future Directions in Sustainability, CSR, and Fraud” Journal of Business Ethics, 138, 601-626. [ABS 3 FT]

28. Aitken, M., Cumming, D.J., and F. Zhan, 2015. “High Frequency Trading and End-of-Day Price Dislocation” Journal of Banking and Finance, 59, 330-349.  [ABS 3]

29. Cumming, D.J., B. Dannhauser, and S. Johan, 2015. “Financial Market Misconduct and Agency Conflicts: A Synthesis and Future Directions” Journal of Corporate Finance, 34, 150-168 [ABS 4]

30. Aitken, M., D.J. Cumming, D.J., and F. Zhan, 2015. “Exchange Trading Rules, Surveillance, and Suspected Insider Trading” Journal of Corporate Finance, 34, 311-330. [ABS 4]

31. Cumming, D.J., Tak Yan Leung, and O.M. Rui, 2015. “Gender Diversity and Securities Fraud” Academy of Management Journal, 58(5) 1572-1593. [ABS 4* FT]

    1. Best Paper Award at EBES Conference, Featured by the New York Times in April 2014

32. Cumming, D.J., A. Knill and N. Richardson, 2015. “Firm Size, Institutional Quality and the Impact of Securities Regulation” Journal of Comparative Economics, 43(2), 417–442. [ABS 3]

33. Cumming, D.J., and S. Johan, 2013. “Listing Standards and Fraud,” Managerial and Decision Economics, 34, 451-470. [ABS 2]

34. Chen, J., D.J. Cumming, W. Hou, and E. Lee, 2013. “Executive Integrity, Audit Opinion, and Fraud in Chinese Listed Firms,” Emerging Markets Review 15, 72-91. [ABS 2]

35. Cumming, D.J., S.A. Johan, and D. Li, 2011. “Exchange Trading Rules and Stock Market Liquidity” Journal of Financial Economics 99(3), 651-671. [ABS 4* FT]

36. Cumming, D.J., and D. Li, 2011. “Runup of Acquirer Stock in Public and Private Acquisitions” Corporate Governance: An International Review 19(3), 210-239. [ABS 3]

37. Cumming, D.J., and S. Johan, 2008 “Global Market Surveillance” American Law and Economics Review 10, 454-506.  [ABS 2]

38. Cumming, D.J., 2001. "Settlement Disputes: Evidence from a Legal Practice Perspective" European Journal of Law and Economics 11(3): 249-280.  [ABS 1]

39. Cumming, D.J., and J. MacIntosh, 2002. "The Rationales Underlying Reincorporation and Implications for Canadian Corporations" International Review of Law and Economics 22(3), 277-330. [ABS 2]

40. Cumming, D.J., and J. MacIntosh, 2000. "The Role of Interjurisdictional Competition in Shaping Canadian Corporate Law" International Review of Law and Economics 20(2): 141-186. (Lead Article) [ABS 2]

1. Alexander, C., and D.J. Cumming, 2020. Corruption and Fraud in Financial Markets: Malpractice, Misconduct, and Manipulation.  Wiley Press.

1. Cumming, D., R. Dannhauser, S. Johan, 2021. “Reputational Effects of Noncompliance with Financial Market Regulations.” In D. Daniel Sokol and B. van Rooij, eds., The Cambridge Handbook of Compliance, Cambridge University Press, Chapter 19, pp. 245-276.

2. Corbett, S., and D. Cumming, 2020. “The Wild West of ICOs” in The Handbook of Alternative Investments, Jonathan Batten Shaen Corbett, Brian Lucey, eds., De Gruyter, forthcoming.

3. Cumming, D., S. Johan, 2020. “Securities Regulation” in H.K. Baker, ed. Equity Markets, Valuation, and Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Chapter 4.