5.5 Sensitivity analyses
The Globe and Mail surveys conducted in 2003-2005 are based on slightly modified but
tougher marking standards than the methods used in 2002; thus, scores may not be
strictly comparable over time. To mitigate this comparability concern, instead of using
continuous variables, following Gompers et al. (2003), we classify the sample into three
groups based on each category of governance: strong governance as a score above the
67th percentile, weak governance as a score below the 33th percentile, and the
remainder as neutral governance. The results are not sensitive to this alternative
classification