Corporate governance and the information environment: Evidence from state antitakeover laws
Journal
Journal of Accounting and Economics
Subject
Accounting
Publishing details
Publication Year
2012
Abstract
We examine the relation between corporate governance and firms' information environments. We use the passage of state antitakeover laws in the U.S. as a source of exogenous variation in an important governance mechanism to identify changes in firms' information environments. We find that information asymmetry and private information gathering decreased and that financial statement informativeness increased following the passage of the antitakeover laws. Cross-sectional analyses indicate that the increased level of financial statement informativeness is attributable to firms that are most likely to access equity markets rather than managerial entrenchment, managerial career concerns, or managers' pursuit of the quiet life
Keywords
Antitakeover laws; Corporate governance; Financial reporting quality; Information asymmetry
Available on ECCH
No
