Product Similarity, Benchmarking, and Corporate Fraud
研究发现，与同行产品相似度越高的企业，财务欺诈发生率越低，因为相似性改善了信息环境，使监管者更容易进行标杆比较，从而提高了欺诈的边际成本。
Abstract We document that firms with greater product similarity to their peers exhibit lower rates of financial fraud. We show that peer similarity is associated with better information environments, which is consistent with monitors’ enhanced ability to benchmark against other firms. The negative relation between product similarity and fraud remains after controlling for alternative mechanisms including incentive compensation structures, competition, and internal and external governance characteristics. Overall, our findings suggest that greater peer similarity increases the marginal cost of fraud, and therefore, ex ante disincentivizing managers from committing fraud.