Product Market Competition and Internal Governance: Evidence from the Sarbanes Oxley Act

We use the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) as a quasi-natural experiment to examine the link between product market competition and internal governance mechanisms. Consistent with notion that competition plays an important role in aligning incentives within the firm, SOX led to a larger improvement in the operation of firms in concentrated industries than in non-concentrated industries. Further, within concentrated industries, the effect is especially pronounced among firms with weaker governance mechanisms prior to SOX. We corroborate these findings using two additional regulatory changes in the U.S. and abroad. Overall, our results indicate that corporate governance is more important when firms face less product market competition.