Les déterminants de la qualité des divulgations non-financières – Le cas du Carbon Disclosure Project

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Les déterminants de la qualité des divulgations non-financières – Le cas du Carbon Disclosure Project

Author Info

Yann Kervinio

Abstract

Non-financial disclosures are mainly discretionary and, consequently, environmental and social data about firms are incomplete and difficult to assess. In this report, we raise the issue of the quality of these data. A review of the literature first presents the broad range of conclusions reached and highlights the main results. This leads us to question the ability of current data to meet the goals which are expected from them, and to reconsider the relevance of somewhat regulating social and environmental disclosures. Next, we turn to the case of the Carbon Disclosure Project, which frames and promotes voluntary disclosures concerning greenhouse gas emissions. We analyse the determinants of responses and their quality using a sample from the Fortune Global 500. Consistently with prior results, we find that the size of firms influences both participation and the quality of responses, and that firms with more dispersed ownership are more likely to participate. Our findings also point at the weak quality of responses from firms associated with the BRIC group of countries (Brasil, Russia, India and China). Finally, we introduce a model which aims at addressing the main econometric problems encountered and we outline an agenda for future research.

De la part des entreprises, les divulgations non-financières restent essentiellement soumises à la discrétion des dirigeants, ce qui conduit à une information environnementale et sociale lacunaire à l’interprétation délicate. En particulier, la question de la qualité de ces divulgations est soulevée. Une revue de littérature présente tout d’abord les principaux résultats parmi la diversité des conclusions auxquelles aboutissent les études. Cette revue nous amène à douter de la possibilité d’assurer une information de qualité par voie volontaire et à nous interroger sur la pertinence d’un encadrement. Nous nous penchons ensuite sur le cas du Carbon Disclosure Project qui encadre et stimule la divulgation volontaire d’informations relatives aux émissions de gaz à effet de serre de la part des grandes entreprises. À partir des données recueillies pour l’échantillon du Fortune Global 500, nous analysons les déterminants de la réponse et de la qualité de celle-ci. En cohérence avec les résultats de la littérature, nous trouvons que la taille influence positivement à la fois la propension à participer et la qualité des réponses et que les entreprises dont l’actionnariat est diffus participent plus facilement au programme. Les résultats pointent par ailleurs la qualité médiocre des divulgations des entreprises des BRIC. Au final, nous utilisons un modèle qui vise à traiter l’ensemble des problèmes économétriques soulevés et nous suggérons des voies de développement pour les recherches à venir.

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Paper provided by CIRANO in its series CIRANO Working Papers with number 2009s-30.

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Date of creation: 01 Aug 2009
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Handle: RePEc:cir:cirwor:2009s-30

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This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

NEP-ACC-2009-08-16 (Accounting & Auditing)
NEP-ALL-2009-08-16 (All new papers)
NEP-ENE-2009-08-16 (Energy Economics)

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