The Statement of Corporate Governance Practices (Scgp), a Voluntary Disclosure and Corporate Governance Perspective

Abstract

Corporate governance has recently given rise to concern and public debate in Canada and on the international scene. Reaction in Canada has focused on extending the regulation of corporate disclosure with regard to corporate governance. Following the recommendation of the Dey Report, companies are now required by the TSE to provide a Statement of Corporate Governance Practices (SCGP). The need for regulation to influence corporate governance structure and disclosure is often challenged in the literature.

This study contributes to the debate by providing empirical evidence to regulators on the incentives for some corporations to engage in better quality SCGP than others. The existing voluntary disclosure and corporate governance literatures are used to develop hypotheses about explanatory variables. The CICA's published ratings for 1996 and 1997 of firms' SCGP serve as benchmarks for disclosure quality, the dependant variable.

Except for size and, to a lesser extent, ownership structure, we did not find consistent and significant relations between the SCGP quality and firm performance or other corporate governance variables such as the proportion of unrelated director, the CEO's plurality of offices and the level of financing activity. Thus, our study falls short of providing a basis for further regulatory action in the area of corporate governance disclosure.

Keywords: corporate governance, voluntary disclosure, disclosure quality, statement of corporate governance practices

JEL Classification: G34, M41, M45