Gill (2001)

Gill, Amar. "Saints and Sinners: Who's Got Religion?" CLSA Emerging Markets report, April 2001.

Ranks 495 companies in 25 emerging markets based on corporate governance practices, using data from a questionnaire sent to CLSA analysts. Finds that "corporate governance pays. For the 100 largest emerging markets companies, average US$ return over three years was 127%, while the top [corporate governance] quartile more than doubled." This is supported by similar correlations in companies' reported financial results and balance sheet ratios.

Corporate governance rankings are "closely" correlated with price/book ratio. No formal statistics are given and academic risk adjustments (size, advertising intensity, R&D intensity) are not made, although some confirming sector analysis is presented.

Also notes that "in the top 100 of our universe for [corporate governance], South Africa, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mexico, and Brazil companies are well-represented - none came from Eastern Europe, Pakistan, Indonesia and Korea."

This strong and deeply researched piece was one of the first comprehensive reports on governance in emerging markets.

Link:  https://books.google.com/books/about/Corporate_Governance_in_Emerging_Markets.html?id=XTD0HAAACAAJ