Earlier this year, a paper was released called “The Effects and Unintended Consequences of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and its Era, on the Supply and Demand for Directors.” Clearly there is a one significant cost of SOX noted here – an increase in the D&O premiums.

The abstract of the paper (emphasis added):

We provide the first comprehensive study on the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) on the supply and demand of directors using broad sample evidence from more than 8,000 public companies as well as detailed analysis of smaller subsamples. Post-SOX boards are larger and more independent. Director workload and risk increased: audit committees meet more than twice as often post SOX as they did pre SOX, and Director and Officer (D&O) insurance premiums more than doubled. The corporate director pool also changed post SOX: more post-SOX directors are lawyers/consultants, financial experts and retired executives and fewer are current executives. These changes drove a large increase in the cost of the board, particularly for small firms. For example, small firms paid $3.19 in director fees per $1,000 of net sales in 2004, which is $0.84 more than they paid in 2001 and $1.21 more than in 1998. In contrast, large firms paid $0.32 in director fees per $1,000 of net sales in 2004, seven cents more than they paid in 2001 and ten cents more than in 1998. Overall, our evidence suggests that SOX, as well as activities leading and pursuant to SOX, had a dramatic impact on corporate boards and the cost thereof.