Remote Work and Voluntary Disclosure: Evidence From COVID‐19 Lockdowns

ABSTRACT

This paper shows that remote work fundamentally alters how managers acquire and process information, with direct consequences for corporate disclosures. Using county‐level COVID‐19 lockdowns as a plausibly exogenous shock to remote work adoption, we find that firms headquartered in lockdown counties (i.e., treated firms) significantly reduce both the supply and quality of voluntary disclosure. We validate the remote work mechanism using workplace mobility data, remote‐work mentions by firms, and industry teleworkability measures. A series of cross‐sectional and robustness tests rule out heightened uncertainty, litigation risk, and signaling incentives as alternative explanations. Overall, our evidence identifies remote‐work‐induced communication frictions as a distinct and economically significant mechanism affecting the quality and quantity of voluntary disclosure.