       
|
|
Volume 31 Number 2 December 2006 |
|
|
Ownership, Competition, and Financial Disclosure |
| Jacqueline L. Birt |
| Chris M. Bilson |
| Tom Smith |
| Robert E. Whaley |
Abstract |
|
A firm's incentive to disclose has been linked empirically to a range of
variables, including information asymmetry, agency costs, political costs,
and proprietary costs. While the intuition underlying each of the variables
seems plausible, Verrecchia (2001) argues that disclosure models can be
characterized as an eclectic mingling of highly idiosyncratic economic-based
models, and challenges researchers to take the first steps to unification.
First, we investigate the role of ownership and competition variables in
explaining voluntary segment disclosures in Australian firms and find support
for both these variables. Second, drawing on theory supported by the
corporate governance, strategic management and industrial organization
literatures, we introduce a new economic variable that unifies both ownership
and competition variables. We find that the unifying variable performs better
than our model focusing on ownership and competition variables alone. We
conduct a series of robustness tests on the model and find that its
significance is not affected by the inclusion of disclosure control variables
identified in prior literature, the change in standard, and acquisitions and
disposals of physical assets.
|
|
| Download this article. |
Keywords |
|
VOLUNTARY DISCLOSURES; OWNERSHIP; COMPETITION
|
Contact DetailsJacqueline L. BirtSchool of Accounting and Business Information Systems, Australian National University. E-mail: jacqueline.birt@anu.edu.au Chris M. Bilson School of Finance and Applied Statistics, College of Business and Economics , Australian National University , CANBERRA ACT 0200 Tom Smith School of Finance and Applied Statistics, College of Business and Economics , Australian National University , CANBERRA ACT 0200 Robert E. Whaley Owen School of Management, Vanderbilt University, 401 21st Avenue South, Nashville TN 37203 |
|
|
This page was last updated in October, 2006. Copyright © The Australian Graduate School of Management Phone: +61 2 9931 9200; Email: eajm@agsm.edu.au |