Disclosure Policy Choice and Corporate Characteristics: A Study of Bangladesh

Abstract

This paper empirically investigates the extent of disclosure in the 1987–88 and 1992–93 annual reports of 118 non-financial publicly quoted companies in Bangladesh, and association between company size, total amount of debt, relationship with parent companies, qualifications of the principal accounting officer, and size of the company's audit firm with disclosure level. The results show that the disclosure level varied between 29.8 per cent and 73.4 per cent, with an average of 53.3 per cent. While the majority of the companies disclosed much information of a statutory nature, the level of voluntary disclosure was very low. However, there has been some improvement in the disclosure levels of local companies and companies audited by smaller firms in 1992–93 over 1987–88. Using a multiple linear regression model, it is found that subsidiaries of multinational enterprises and companies audited by large audit firms disclose significantly more information in their annual reports.