We examine the impact of governance reforms on firm value in 41 countries. Using a differencein-differences design, we find that firm value increases after enactment of the reforms and that the effect of these reforms primarily exists in countries with weak legal institutions. The effect of reforms on firm value is primarily due to provisions related to board independence and audit committee, not the separation of the roles of chief executive officer and chairman. In addition, the effect of reforms is concentrated among comply-or-explain reforms, and the role of countrylevel institutions is less important for these reforms than for regulation reforms. Taken together, our findings suggest exogenously imposed governance changes benefit shareholders, mainly in countries with weak institutional quality and for reforms with a comply-or-explain approach. JEL classification: G15; G34; K22