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

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.