Corporate Governance Transparency and Disclosure as a Factor of Russian Companies' Performance

The quality of corporate governance (CG) increases companies’ value and asset prices (Bhagat, Black, 1999; Black, 2001; Black et al, 2006; Rachinsky, 2003; Gompers et al, 2003, etc.) and can be ensured by an adequate disclosure of CG practices (Kandukuri, 2015). The research of T&D (transparency and disclosure) effect on companies’ performance is particularly important for Russia as the country has made a significant step toward CG T&D improvements. The current paper aims to determine the relationships between T&D on CG and companies’ performance, controlling for possible reverse causality between variables, and to find possible explanations of the results obtained. The sample employed includes observations for 99 leading Russian companies traded on the MOEX from 6 different industries for 2013-2015. CG T&D was estimated by Russian Regional Network (RRN). The simultaneous regression model was specified and estimated with 3SLS procedure. Although there are no statistically significant effects of T&D on companies’ performance, we have found that higher performed companies tend to have lower T&D on CG. Moreover, companies included in the sanctions’ lists are less transparent in terms of their CG.