Do Board Independence and audit committees motivate disclosure on Different Corporate Governance information categories in the annual reports in developing countries?

Author's Department

Accounting Department

Document Type

Research Article

Publication Title

International Research Journal of Finance and Economics

Publication Date

11-1-2010

Abstract

In this study we examine the impact of board independence and the presence of an audit committee on the level of disclosure of different corporate governance (CG) information categories (i.e. Ownership structure and exercise of control rights, Financial transparency and information, Auditing, Corporate responsibility and compliance, and Board and management structure and process) of the 30 most actively traded companies on the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX). The findings indicate that the different categories of CG disclosure are associated with board independence which is consistent with a complementary relationship between independent directors and disclosure. However, the results throw into question the cost benefit relationship of establishing audit committees in the active share trading Egyptian firms, since there is no significant association between the existence of these committees and the different CG disclosure categories. Therefore, awareness building, education and training, incentives or disincentives to disclose including the nature of enforcement regimes are possible policy recommendations, but all carry costs as well as benefits. The findings provide a benchmark of performance against which future research can measure longitudinal changes after a further learning period.©EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2010.

First Page

206

Last Page

225

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