Prior research predicts that firms reliant on external financing are more likely to undertake a higher level of disclosure, and a higher disclosure level should, in turn, lead to a lower cost of external financing. This paper tests these predictions outside the United States where alternative legal and financial systems could mitigate the effectiveness of such disclosures and, comprehensively, examines both disclosure incentives and disclosure consequences on cost of capital for a common set of firms. Using a sample from 34 countries, we find that firms in industries with greater external financing needs have higher voluntary disclosure levels, and that an expanded disclosure policy for these firms leads to a lower cost of both debt and equity capital. Crosscountry differences in legal and financial systems affect observed disclosure levels in predicted ways. However, a surprising result in the study is that voluntary disclosure incentives appear to operate independently of country‐level factors, which suggests the effectiveness of voluntary disclosure in gaining access to lower cost external financing around the world.
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1 October 2005
Research Article|
October 01 2005
Disclosure Incentives and Effects on Cost of Capital around the World
Jere R. Francis;
Jere R. Francis
aUniversity of Missouri–Columbia and University of Melbourne.
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Inder K. Khurana;
Inder K. Khurana
bUniversity of Missouri–Columbia.
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Raynolde Pereira
Raynolde Pereira
cUniversity of Missouri–Columbia.
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Online ISSN: 1558-7967
Print ISSN: 0001-4826
American Accounting Association
2005
The Accounting Review (2005) 80 (4): 1125–1162.
Citation
Jere R. Francis, Inder K. Khurana, Raynolde Pereira; Disclosure Incentives and Effects on Cost of Capital around the World. The Accounting Review 1 October 2005; 80 (4): 1125–1162. https://doi.org/10.2308/accr.2005.80.4.1125
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