Internal control financial reporting and firm performance: A public policy evaluation of section 404(a) of the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002

his dissertation investigates the subject of mandatory internal control financial reporting enacted by Section 404(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). The primary research hypothesis inquires about the effect of internal control financial reporting on public companies' firm performance or market value. The empirical results based on the SOX Section 404 internal control assessment reports dataset for the period 2004 to 2013 show that firms with effective internal controls have higher market value and inversely firms with ineffective internal controls have lower market value. In addition the average yearly audit and audit related cost per firm had decreased by about 47%; from a high of...