Social trust and the choices to provide audited financial statements by private firms in emerging markets
研究发现，社会信任越高的国家，私营企业越不倾向于提供经审计的财务报表，因为社会信任替代了审计在缓解代理问题中的作用。
Our study explores the association between social trust and private firms' choices to provide audited financial statements. By exploring an international sample from emerging markets, we find that private firms in countries with higher social trust are less likely to provide audited financial statements. This finding arises because social trust helps address contracting imperfections, substituting for audited financial statements in mitigating agency problems. Our study suggests that social trust renders private firms rely less on audited financial statements to facilitate contracting. We contribute to the literature on private firms’ financial reporting choices and the role of social trust in shaping economic decisions.