What Determines Corporate Transparency精选.pdfVIP

Journal of Accounting Research Vol. 42 No. 2 May 2004 Printed in U.S.A. What Determines Corporate Transparency? R O B E R T M . B U S H M A N , ∗ J O S E P H D . P I O T R O S K I , † A N D A B B I E J . S M I T H † Received 10 January 2003; accepted 25 November 2003 ABSTRACT 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 from a multifaceted system whose components collectively produce, gather, validate, and disseminate in- formation. We factor analyze a range of measures capturing countries’ firm- specific information environments, isolating two distinct factors. The first fac- tor, 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 re- lated to a country’s legal/judicial regime, whereas the financial transparency factor is primarily related to political economy. ∗University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; †University of Chicago. We appreciate the in- sightful suggestions of the referee and the editors. We thank workshop participants at Baruch College, Harvard Business School, HKUST, University of Iowa, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Rochester, Uni