1. Introduction
The considerable amount of regulatory attention given to corporate governance issues
in recent years suggests that stronger governance mechanisms would reduce
opportunistic management behavior, thus improving the quality and reliability of
financial reporting. Regulators believe that this in turn will help to maintain and
enhance investors’ confidence in the integrity of capital markets. In contrast, some
critics argue that the enhanced governance and litigation environment may change the
balance of business and information risk for many firms, with the predictable and
undesirable result that many firms will become more cautious, and forgo promising
opportunities. Thus, shareholder wealth may ultimately be reduced. Although in the
literature studies have examined the association between the attributes of governance
mechanisms and firm performance, as well as the information content of the financial
reporting process, much less is known about the impact of the recent changes in
corporate governance codes on earnings quality internationally (Beekes et al., 2004)[1].