IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/reaccs/v18y2013i4d10.1007_s11142-013-9223-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A theory of voluntary disclosure and cost of capital

Author

Listed:
  • Edwige Cheynel

    (Columbia University)

Abstract

This paper explores the links between firms’ voluntary disclosures and their cost of capital. Existing studies investigate the relation between mandatory disclosures and cost of capital and find no cross-sectional effect but a negative association in time-series. In this paper, I find that when disclosure is voluntary firms that disclose their information have a lower cost of capital than firms that do not disclose, but the association between voluntary disclosure and cost of capital for disclosing and nondisclosing firms is positive in aggregate. I further examine whether reductions in cost of capital indicate improved risk-sharing or investment efficiency. I also find that high (low) disclosure frictions lead to overinvestment (underinvestment) relative to first-best. As average cost of capital proxies for risk-sharing but not investment efficiency, the relation between cost of capital and ex ante efficiency may be ambiguous and often irrelevant.

Suggested Citation

  • Edwige Cheynel, 2013. "A theory of voluntary disclosure and cost of capital," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 987-1020, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:reaccs:v:18:y:2013:i:4:d:10.1007_s11142-013-9223-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s11142-013-9223-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11142-013-9223-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11142-013-9223-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nikolaev, V. & van Lent, L.A.G.M., 2005. "The Endogeneity Bias in the Relation Between Cost-of-Debt Capital and Corporate Disclosure Policy," Discussion Paper 2005-67, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    2. Mary E. Barth & Wayne R. Landsman & Mark H. Lang, 2008. "International Accounting Standards and Accounting Quality," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 46(3), pages 467-498, June.
    3. Kirschenheiter, M, 1997. "Information quality and correlated signals," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(1), pages 43-59.
    4. Leuz, C & Verrecchia, RE, 2000. "The economic consequences of increased disclosure," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38, pages 91-124.
    5. Nikolaev, V. & van Lent, L.A.G.M., 2005. "The Endogeneity Bias in the Relation Between Cost-of-Debt Capital and Corporate Disclosure Policy," Other publications TiSEM 5960a342-0adc-4f85-bf87-2, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    6. Dye, Ra, 1985. "Disclosure Of Nonproprietary Information," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(1), pages 123-145.
    7. Richard Lambert & Christian Leuz & Robert E. Verrecchia, 2007. "Accounting Information, Disclosure, and the Cost of Capital," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 45(2), pages 385-420, May.
    8. Verrecchia, Robert E., 1983. "Discretionary disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 179-194, April.
    9. Beck, Thorsten & Demirgüç-Kunt, Asli & Maksimovic, Vojislav, 2008. "Financing patterns around the world: Are small firms different?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(3), pages 467-487, September.
    10. Hughes, J.S.John S. & Pae, Suil, 2004. "Voluntary disclosure of precision information," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 261-289, June.
    11. Pierre Jinghong Liang & Xiaoyan Wen, 2007. "Accounting Measurement Basis, Market Mispricing, and Firm Investment Efficiency," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 45(1), pages 155-197, March.
    12. Pae, S, 1999. "Acquisition and discretionary disclosure of private information and its implications for firms' productive activities," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(2), pages 465-474.
    13. Bertomeu, Jeremy & Magee, Robert P., 2011. "From low-quality reporting to financial crises: Politics of disclosure regulation along the economic cycle," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 209-227.
    14. Jennifer Francis & Dhananjay Nanda & Per Olsson, 2008. "Voluntary Disclosure, Earnings Quality, and Cost of Capital," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 46(1), pages 53-99, March.
    15. Jung, Wo & Kwon, Yk, 1988. "Disclosure When The Market Is Unsure Of Information Endowment Of Managers," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(1), pages 146-153.
    16. Mark Rubinstein., 1975. "The Strong Case for the Generalized Logarithmic Utility Model as the Premier Model of Financial Markets," Research Program in Finance Working Papers 34, University of California at Berkeley.
    17. Kenton K. Yee, 2006. "Earnings Quality and the Equity Risk Premium: A Benchmark Model," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(3), pages 833-877, September.
    18. Eti Einhorn, 2005. "The Nature of the Interaction between Mandatory and Voluntary Disclosures," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(4), pages 593-621, September.
    19. Nikolaev, V. & van Lent, L.A.G.M., 2005. "The endogeneity bias in the relation between cost-of-debt capital and corporate disclosure policy," Other publications TiSEM 04869b30-e8a9-4ecf-84ae-6, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    20. Valeri Nikolaev & Laurence van Lent, 2005. "The endogeneity bias in the relation between cost-of-debt capital and corporate disclosure policy," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(4), pages 677-724.
    21. Cass, David & Stiglitz, Joseph E., 1970. "The structure of investor preferences and asset returns, and separability in portfolio allocation: A contribution to the pure theory of mutual funds," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(2), pages 122-160, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stephen P. Baginski & Kenneth C. Rakow, 2012. "Management earnings forecast disclosure policy and the cost of equity capital," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 279-321, June.
    2. Matthews, Lane & Heyden, Mariano L.M. & Zhou, Dan, 2022. "Paradoxical transparency? Capital market responses to exploration and exploitation disclosure," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(1).
    3. Hakan Jankensgard, 2014. "A Tale of Beauties and Beasts: Testing the Optimal Disclosure Hypothesis," Multinational Finance Journal, Multinational Finance Journal, vol. 18(1-2), pages 139-167, March - J.
    4. Florian Eugster, 2020. "Endogeneity and the Dynamics of Voluntary Disclosure Quality: Is there Really an Effect on the Cost of Equity Capital?," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(4), pages 2590-2614, December.
    5. Christian Leuz & Peter D. Wysocki, 2016. "The Economics of Disclosure and Financial Reporting Regulation: Evidence and Suggestions for Future Research," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 54(2), pages 525-622, May.
    6. Snehal Banerjee & Iván Marinovic & Kevin Smith, 2024. "Disclosing to Informed Traders," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 79(2), pages 1513-1578, April.
    7. Chaiyasit Anuchitworawong, 2010. "The Value of Principles-Based Governance Practices and the Attenuation of Information Asymmetry," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 17(2), pages 171-207, June.
    8. D. G. DeBoskey & Peter R. Gillett, 2019. "Another Look: The Impact of Multi-Dimensional Corporate Transparency on US Firms’ Market Liquidity and Analyst Forecast Properties," Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies (RPBFMP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 22(02), pages 1-35, June.
    9. Beyer, Anne & Cohen, Daniel A. & Lys, Thomas Z. & Walther, Beverly R., 2010. "The financial reporting environment: Review of the recent literature," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 296-343, December.
    10. Sung Gon Chung & Beng Wee Goh & Jeffrey Ng & Kevin Ow Yong, 2017. "Voluntary fair value disclosures beyond SFAS 157’s three-level estimates," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 430-468, March.
    11. Elzahar, Hany & Hussainey, Khaled & Mazzi, Francesco & Tsalavoutas, Ioannis, 2015. "Economic consequences of key performance indicators' disclosure quality," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 96-112.
    12. Rjiba, Hatem & Saadi, Samir & Boubaker, Sabri & Ding, Xiaoya (Sara), 2021. "Annual report readability and the cost of equity capital," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    13. Verrecchia, Robert E., 2001. "Essays on disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1-3), pages 97-180, December.
    14. Jankensgård, Håkan, 2013. "An Empirical Test of the Optimal Disclosure Hypothesis," Knut Wicksell Working Paper Series 2013/6, Lund University, Knut Wicksell Centre for Financial Studies.
    15. Lopin Kuo & Po-Wen Kuo & Chun-Chih Chen, 2021. "Mandatory CSR Disclosure, CSR Assurance, and the Cost of Debt Capital: Evidence from Taiwan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-19, February.
    16. Nicola Raimo & Alessandra Caragnano & Marianna Zito & Filippo Vitolla & Massimo Mariani, 2021. "Extending the benefits of ESG disclosure: The effect on the cost of debt financing," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(4), pages 1412-1421, July.
    17. Belén Blanco & Juan M. Garcia Lara & Josep A. Tribó Giné, 2009. "The Complementarity Between Segment Disclosure and Earnings Quality, and its Effect on Cost Capital," Working Papers 1005, Departament Empresa, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, revised Feb 2010.
    18. Eti Einhorn & Amir Ziv, 2008. "Intertemporal Dynamics of Corporate Voluntary Disclosures," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 46(3), pages 567-589, June.
    19. Mark Whitmeyer & Kun Zhang, 2022. "Costly Evidence and Discretionary Disclosure," Papers 2208.04922, arXiv.org.
    20. David DeBoskey & Peter Gillett, 2013. "The impact of multi-dimensional corporate transparency on us firms’ credit ratings and cost of capital," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 101-134, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D61 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Allocative Efficiency; Cost-Benefit Analysis
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:reaccs:v:18:y:2013:i:4:d:10.1007_s11142-013-9223-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.