Title: Mandatory disclosures and firm characteristics: evidence from the Athens Stock Exchange

Authors: Stergios Tasios; Michalis Bekiaris

Addresses: School of Business, University of the Aegean, 8 Michalon str., Chios 82100, Greece ' School of Business, University of the Aegean, 8 Michalon str., Chios 82100, Greece

Abstract: This paper examines the association between the extent of mandatory disclosure and eight corporate characteristics: firm size, ownership dispersion, leverage, profitability, liquidity, audit firm size, board independence and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) duality. For this purpose, a disclosure index comprising 29 mandatory items was developed and applied on a sample of 72 annual reports of non-financial companies listed on the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE). The relationship between the level of disclosure and the above firm characteristics was examined with the use of multiple linear regression. The results showed that the aforementioned companies listed on the ASE present an adequate degree of average compliance with mandatory disclosure requirements. As far as the relationship with firm characteristics is concerned, the level of mandatory disclosure was found to be significantly positively associated with firm size and liquidity and negatively associated with CEO duality.

Keywords: mandatory disclosure; firm characteristics; Athens Stock Exchange; financial accounting; Greece; firm size; ownership dispersion; leverage; profitability; liquidity; audit firms; board independence; Chief Executive Officer; CEO duality.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMFA.2014.066401

International Journal of Managerial and Financial Accounting, 2014 Vol.6 No.4, pp.303 - 321

Received: 21 May 2014
Accepted: 21 Aug 2014
Published online: 18 Dec 2014 *

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