Does corporate governance index impact on environmental disclosure? Evidence from India

This paper empirically investigates the impact of corporate governance index on environmental disclosure of most polluting companies in India. The corporate governance index is measured by a checklist of items based on corporate governance code given by securities and exchange board of India and the OECD principles on corporate governance. Environmental disclosure is measured based on the global reporting initiative guidelines and environmental regulations prevailing in India. Disclosure scores are drawn individually by using content analysis of annual reports for 130 polluting companies in India for a period of seven years, i.e., from 2009-2010 to 2015-2016. Employing panel data regression model, the study finds a positive association between corporate governance index and environmental disclosure. The findings of the study also describe current disclosure which is significantly influenced by companies' previous year's corporate governance. Further, the study explains four sub-indices of corporate governance are also positively associated with environmental disclosure of a company.