Our study explores the association between social trust and private firms' choices to provide audited financial statements. By exploring an international sample from emerging markets, we find that private firms in countries with higher social trust are less likely to provide audited financial statements. This finding arises because social trust helps address contracting imperfections, substituting for audited financial statements in mitigating agency problems. Our study suggests that social trust renders private firms rely less on audited financial statements to facilitate contracting. We contribute to the literature on private firms’ financial reporting choices and the role of social trust in shaping economic decisions.

中文翻译：

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新兴市场私营企业的社会信任和提供经审计财务报表的选择

我们的研究探讨了社会信任与私营企业选择提供经审计的财务报表之间的关联。通过探索新兴市场的国际样本，我们发现社会信任度较高的国家的私营企业不太可能提供经审计的财务报表。这一发现的出现是因为社会信任有助于解决契约缺陷，取代经审计的财务报表来减轻代理问题。我们的研究表明，社会信任使得私营企业更少依赖经审计的财务报表来促进签约。我们为有关私营企业的财务报告选择以及社会信任在影响经济决策中的作用的文献做出贡献。