From enforcement to financial reporting controls (FRCs): a country-level composite indicator

Abstract

This paper proposes a broad measure of the country-level intensity of the main monitoring activities that are likely to affect financial reporting quality. The overall indicator (FRC) is a composite indicator combining three components, which measure the intensity of three different financial reporting controls (FRCs) exercised through corporate governance, audit, and enforcement. The indicator design adds to country measures used in accounting research in several ways. First, it employs recent process-oriented data to capture the intensity of controls in a regulatory context that is characterized by increasing harmonization. Process data can be updated periodically, and thus is also suitable for longitudinal analyses. Additionally, the development of the FRC indicator applies standard techniques for constructing composite indicators without a priori assumptions and weights. The paper presents the values of the FRC indicator in 17 European countries, revealing a diversified mix of FRC intensity across Europe. Our analysis shows that the three domain-specific indicators, which can also be used separately, measure different aspects of the intensity of financial reporting controls rather than an overall country attribute. Consistency analyses also show that the FRC indicator is not capturing a latent construct of financial reporting quality present in other metrics, thus providing support for its innovative use in cross-country accounting research.