What determines corporate transparency?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bushman, RM; Piotroski, JD; Smith, AJ
• 署名单位: University of North Carolina; University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; University of Chicago
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING RESEARCH
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0021-8456
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-679X.2004.00136.x
• 发表日期: 2004
• 页码: 207-252
• 关键词: financial development; LAW; PROTECTION; STANDARDS; GROWTH

摘要

We investigate corporate transparency, defined as the availability of firm specific information to those outside publicly traded firms. We conceptualize corporate transparency within a country as output front a multifaceted system whose components collectively produce, gather, validate, and disseminate information. We factor analyze a range of measures capturing countries' firm specific information environments, isolating two distinct factors. The first factor, interpreted as financial transparency, captures the intensity and timeliness of financial disclosures, and their interpretation and dissemination by analysts and the media. The second factor, interpreted as governance transparency, captures the intensity of governance disclosures used by outside investors to hold officers and directors accountable. We investigate whether these factors vary with countries' legal/judicial regimes and political economies. Our main multivariate result is that the governance transparency factor is primarily related to a country's legal/judicial regime, whereas the financial transparency factor is primarily related to political economy.