Recent accounting scandals, often led by managers trying to improve results and thereby their own bonuses, have severely damaged the publics view of management. In the aftermath of scandals such as Enron, Parmalat and Skandia, demand has increased for Corporate Governance codes and similar regulation. The Swedish code for Corporate Governance came into effect on July 1, 2005. The code requires all Swedish companies listed on the Swedish Stock Exchange (OMX A- and O-list), with a turnover exceeding 3 billion SEK, to disclose a report regarding Corporate Governance, attached to the annual report.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the new disclosure required by the Swedish Corporate Governance code will have a measurable effect on stock prices. The authors have applied event study methodology examining daily returns around the announcement of the Corporate Governance reports. The listed companies mentioned above were also divided into groups depending on whether or not the report hade been audited, and to which extent the authors found the reports to be transparent. Also, two groups were formed with companies applying SOX, and companies not required to apply the code.

The results show that a measurable negative effect could be identified on the 1% significancelevel on the day of the event for the whole sample of companies. Companies publishing audited reports found positive Abnormal Returns, but without significance. Negative abnormal returns were found on the 1% significance-level for companies not presenting audited reports. No significant results were found for the groups classified after the degree of transparency. The findings suggest that the market is not fully mature enough to evaluate unaudited reports. The market rewards companies that audit the reports. The conclusion of this paper is therefore that reports regarding Corporate Governance do have a negative effect on stock prices.