Do Credible Financial Reporting and Government Intervention Play a Role in Preventing Corruption? A Preliminary Investigation of the European Union

This study investigates whether an association exists between credible financial reporting, government intervention, and corruption in the European Union. A high level of financial disclosures together with the number of auditors in a country should provide the infrastructure necessary to ensure the credibility of accounting and financial information. When governments do not interfere with the rights of citizens to do what they want with what they earn or create, citizens prosper, economies thrive, and the incidence of corruption is minimized. The results show that, economic freedom, disclosure levels, and the number of auditors in a country have a statistically significant relationship with corruption.