Investigating the Relationship between Corruption, Corporate Governance and Corporate Performance: A Provincial Survey

The impact of corruption on economic activity has been widely discussed in the literature. On the one hand, some believe that bribery motivates bureaucracies to give private-sector economic agents the opportunity to overcome cumbersome regulations. In this case, corruption can improve the efficiency of public resource allocation. The second argument is that more bribery distorts the decisions of private sector and reduces allocation efficiency. In recent decades, extensive studies have been conducted in the field of corruption and its effects on various aspects of economic, social and governance, as well as defining indicators of corruption and providing models for its reflection. Researchers have often examined corruption based on perceptual criteria and nationall level. The novelty of this research is to take advantage of the objective documentation and local dimensions in defining the corruption index. This study, using a local and objective variable of corruption, by comparing sample data consisting of selected companies of Tehran Stock Exchange in areas with higher corruption and areas with lower corruption, examines the relationship between corruption, corporate governance and holding the company's cash at the level of selected companies on the Tehran Stock Exchange, using the panel data method. The results show the negative impact of corruption on companies' cash holdings, while board independence and ownership concentration do not have a significant relationship with cash holdings.