The Timeliness of Financial Reporting: A Comparative Study of the People's Republic of China and the European Union

It is important to report financial information in a timely fashion. The longer a company waits to release its annual report and accompanying financial statements, the more stale the information is and the less useful it is. A number of studies have been done on various aspects of timeliness in financial reporting. Those studies are not summarized here but a listing is provided in the reference section for further research. Various organizations have cited the importance of timely financial reporting. The Accounting Principles Board (1970) addressed the issue in one of its statements. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD 2004) lists it as an important principle of corporate governance. The World Bank has conducted more than 40 studies on corporate governance in various countries that have included a look at their financial reporting practices, including timeliness. Seventeen of those studies were of transition countries. Unfortunately, the World Bank did not study timeliness for the People’s Republic of China. To our knowledge, no studies of timeliness have been done using the PRC as a case study, with the exception of the studies mentioned in this book. Thus, there is a gap in the literature that needs to be filled. The purpose of the present study is to partially fill that gap.