The Role of Foreign Shareholders in Disciplining Financial Reporting
研究了外国股东能否改善低制度质量国家企业的财务报告质量，发现只有来自强投资者保护国家的外国股东才能提升报告质量，且机构投资者效果更明显。
Abstract We investigate the role of foreign shareholders in improving the quality of accounting information provided by firms domiciled in countries with low de facto institutional quality. Using a sample of firms from four South European countries (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain) for which we observe detailed ownership evolutions over the period 2002–2007, we find that increases in foreign ownership lead to increases in financial reporting quality but only if the foreign shareholders are domiciled in countries with strong investor protection mechanisms. Further, we find that the improvement in financial reporting quality is more pronounced in the case of foreign institutional investors. Finally, our results hold before and after the introduction of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in 2005.