The Association of Board Independence and Ownership Concentration with Voluntary Disclosure: A Meta-analysis

In this paper we apply meta-analysis to a sample of 27 empirical studies to clarify the association of board independence and ownership concentration with voluntary disclosure. We examine whether variations in results are attributable to the differences in the corporate governance system, the investor protection rights and the measurement of the governance variables. The findings show that the positive association between board independence and voluntary disclosure only occurs in those countries with high investor protection rights. The findings emphasize the need to consider the legal and institutional setting explicitly when analysing the effect of corporate governance on voluntary disclosure.