Why did other countries adopt SOX-like laws? In the absence of research evidence, one could
conjecture that, to an extent, the heightened awareness of corporate frauds revealed in the economic
downturn in early 2000s drove adoption of new laws to deter fraud. The governance template
provided by SOX made it easier for countries to copy the law. Global transmission of regulatory (or
best practice) guidelines has been observed before (e.g., board independence rules) and is an
interesting topic that has not received much attention in the accounting, finance or legal literatures.