Using Sarbanes-Oxley Act to Reward Honest Corporations

Abstract:     
Sarbanes-Oxley Act offers an opportunity to reward truthful corporations and their management, offering them a competitive advantage, and relieving them from some the Act's provisions. Corporate culture plays an important role in a corporation's honest behavior. One size does not fit all in matters of corporate culture. Sarbanes-Oxley Act provisions that impose on all corporations the same internal controls and governance rules impose unnecessary costs on corporations, requiring honest corporations to change one good habit for another. The article suggests that relief from some of the internal controls rules imposed in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act might be an effective way for rewarding corporations for their honest behavior rather than punishing them.

Keywords: Sarbanes-Oxley, corporate culture

JEL Classifications: K22, K42

Working Paper Series