We use Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to
combine CG attributes. In prior research, CG attributes
are usually combined using equally weighted or
binary approaches. Gompers et al.’s (2003) governance
index, for example, consists of 24 variables, all
of which are binary. They calculate the index using
the equal weighted sum of the variables. Others, such
as Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia (CLSA) (2001)
Patel et al. (2002), and Garay and Gonza´ lez (2008),
use similar methods to obtain their indices. Although
this method creates data that are more reproducible,
it omits important information that continuous CG
variables yield, and it subjectively sets the thresholds
of binary variables. CG attributes should have
different degrees of importance, and thus an equal
weighting of index components makes the comparison
more difficult. The challenge here is to find the
appropriate weighting of CG attributes. In our
model, we first apply the PCA, and then use the
largest eigenvector to combine the CG attributes.
This method captures the commonality of both
binary and continuous variables, and thus the indices
account for the contributions of individual attributes
to the CG mechanisms.