Corporate Governance and Annual Report Readability: Testing the Management Obfuscation Hypothesis

Abstract

This study examines the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on annual report readability. Drawing on a comprehensive dataset of Korean public firms from 2016 to 2020, we identify a significant relationship between certain governance attributes and annual report readability. Specifically, our results indicate that board independence and expertise are positively associated with readability, whereas the presence of owner-managers is negatively associated. These relationships become more pronounced both statistically and economically when employing readability measures that control the factors driven by financial performance. This study advances the understanding of how corporate governance shapes disclosure practices in emerging markets and introduces a methodology to distinguish deliberate obfuscation from inherent textual complexity in corporate disclosures.