An entity’s corporate governance structure may
mitigate the disincentive to voluntarily disclose
key information with high proprietary costs.
Stronger corporate governance mechanisms are
thought to lower the cost of equity by reducing
the cost of external monitoring by outside investors.
Lombardo and Pagano (2002), for example,
postulate that investors need to incur external
monitoring costs to ensure a given pay-off from
management. Additional monitoring costs are
compensated by a higher required rate of return.
External investors are likely to demand a lower required
rate of return from firms with better corporate
governance. This is because they can spend
less time and resources on monitoring the management.
Corporate governance can also reduce the
cost of equity by limiting opportunistic insider
trading, thereby, reducing information asymmetry.
Battacharya and Daouk (2002), for example, find
the cost of equity in a country decreases significantly
after the first prosecution under insider trading
laws. If corporate governance mechanisms
reduce the cost of capital then this provides greater
scope for firms to voluntarily disclose more information
even in light of high proprietary costs.
Recent evidence from the UK suggests that
stronger corporate governance structures are associated
with increased intellectual capital disclosure
(Li et al., 2008).