This study empirically investigates the direct and interactive effects of firm-level ethics policies and country-level investor protection on firm corporate governance transparency. Using data on 9298 firms collected from the Bloomberg Terminal, we find that there is a positive relationship between country-level investor protection and firm corporate governance transparency. The results also support the argument that firms with existing ethics policies exhibit greater corporate governance transparency. We also find that in countries with weaker investor protection, the impact of firm-level ethics policies on corporate governance transparency is stronger. This study advances our understanding of the corporate governance transparency determinants, and the empirical evidence supports the notion that firm-level factors such as ethics policies may compensate for the lack of formal national investor protection regulations.

中文翻译：

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公司治理透明度：公司层面的道德政策和国家层面的投资者保护是替代还是补充？


本研究实证调查了公司层面道德政策和国家层面投资者保护对公司治理透明度的直接和互动影响。利用从彭博终端收集的 9298 家公司的数据，我们发现国家层面的投资者保护与公司治理透明度之间存在正相关关系。研究结果还支持这样的论点：拥有现有道德政策的公司表现出更高的公司治理透明度。我们还发现，在投资者保护较弱的国家，公司层面的道德政策对公司治理透明度的影响更大。这项研究增进了我们对公司治理透明度决定因素的理解，经验证据支持这样的观点，即道德政策等公司层面的因素可以弥补正式的国家投资者保护法规的缺乏。