Methods for Multicountry Studies of Coporate Governance: Evidence from the BRIKT Countries

Black, Bernard and De Carvalho, Antonio Gledson and Khanna, Vikramaditya and Kim, Woochan and Yurtoglu, Burcin (2014): Methods for Multicountry Studies of Coporate Governance: Evidence from the BRIKT Countries.

Abstract

We discuss empirical challenges in multicountry studies of the effect of firm-level corporate governance on firm value, focusing on emerging markets. We assess the severe data, “construct validity,” and endogeneity issues in these studies, propose methods to respond to those issues, and apply those methods to a study of five major emerging markets -- Brazil, India, Korea, Russia, and Turkey. We develop unique time-series datasets on governance in each country. We address construct validity by building country-specific indices which reflect local norms and institutions. These similar-but-not-identical indices predict firm market value in each country, and when pooled across countries in firm fixed-effects (FE) and random-effects (RE) regressions. In contrast, a “common index” that uses the same elements in each country, has no predictive power in FE regressions. For the country-specific and pooled indices, FE and RE coefficients on governance are generally lower than in pooled OLS regressions; and coefficients with extensive covariates are generally lower than with limited covariates. These results confirm the value of using FE or RE with extensive covariates to reduce omitted variable bias. We develop lower bounds on our estimates which reflect potential omitted variable bias.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Brazil, Korea, India, Russia, Turkey, corporate governance, boards of directors, disclosure, shareholder rights
• Subjects: G - Financial Economics > G1 - General Financial Markets > G18 - Government Policy and Regulation; G - Financial Economics > G3 - Corporate Finance and Governance > G30 - General; G - Financial Economics > G3 - Corporate Finance and Governance > G34 - Mergers ; Acquisitions ; Restructuring ; Corporate Governance; G - Financial Economics > G3 - Corporate Finance and Governance > G39 - Other; K - Law and Economics > K2 - Regulation and Business Law > K22 - Business and Securities Law; K - Law and Economics > K2 - Regulation and Business Law > K29 - Other

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