Corporate Governance and Firm Valuation in Asian Emerging Markets

Abstract

One of the most contentious issues in the corporate governance debate is the presumed benefits of adopting internationally accepted corporate governance practices. This study investigates the relation between the quality of corporate governance practices and market valuation for listed firms in five Asian economies: China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand. Based on the OECD Corporate Governance Principles (Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development, 1999), we use a survey instrument to assess the quality of corporate governance practices of listed companies in these Asian emerging markets. The new instrument represents an improvement over existing instruments as it is more comprehensive, covering five aspects of corporate governance (rights of shareholders, treatment of shareholders, roles of stakeholders, disclosure and transparency, and board responsibilities). The survey instrument also captures variation in the quality of governance practices across firms. The empirical results show there is a positive relation between the quality of corporate governance practices and firm value in each of the five nations.