International website disclosure of codes of ethics: auditor‐specific and stock‐exchange‐listing differences

This research examines whether having a readily available code of ethics on a corporation's website associates with either their auditor or stock exchange listing. As such, it is the first research that studies the association among readily available codes of ethics, client auditor and stock exchange listing on a longitudinal basis. In our data gathering, we went to the website of each corporation and searched for a readily available disclosure of its code of ethics at the beginning of April 2006 through April 2009 – third‐through‐sixth anniversaries of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act. Our data indicate that the average readily available rate of codes of ethics for Ernst and Young's clients was significantly lower than the average readily available rate for the clients of Deloitte and Touche in 2006 and 2007 and PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2007. However, our data indicate no differences among the Big Four firms in 2008 and 2009. Our data indicate that the average readily available rates for the clients listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) were significantly higher than for clients that were not listed on the NYSE for all four observation points (2006–2009).