* The Authors would like to thank the generous support of the Research Group, a nationally recognized consortium of university scholars, corporate leaders, and qualified undergraduate students dedicated to high quality, collaborative research that contributes to the business profession. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to better understand the relationship between accounting and auditing quality and the perceived level of corruption. Design/methodology/approach -This relationship is studied by performing a cross-country analysis using public data to measure accounting quality, audit quality, and corruption. Findings -Consistent with our predictions, we find evidence that accounting and auditing quality are significantly related to the level of perceived corruption in a country.Research Limitations/implications -These findings suggest that countries with more transparent reporting have lower levels of perceived corruption and that the level of perceived corruption may be reduced in a country by improving accounting and auditing quality. Practical implications -The findings suggest that countries can reduce the level of perceived corruption by improving the transparency of financial reporting by improving accounting and auditing standards. Originality/value -While significant amounts of research has examined perceived corruption, this study is the first to address the impact of high quality accounting information on the level of perceived corruption.