In this paper, we examine investors’ valuations of corporate cash hoardings and dividend payout to explicitly isolate the monitoring effect from the information effect of corporate disclosure activity. In a sample of 951 firms from 38 countries, we find that cash resources are rewarded with higher market valuation when greater disclosure improves a firm’s transparency. These results suggest that extensive disclosure enhances external monitoring and thus limits insiders’ ability to accumulate cash to expropriate minority shareholders. In further support of the monitoring effect of strong disclosure, we find that dividend payout is valued at a premium in opaque firms where cash is more vulnerable to consumption of private control benefits. Overall, our findings support the disciplinary role of firm-level disclosure policy in corporate governance mechanisms.