This study has investigated mandatory disclosure requirements of financial instruments. A first-time adoption compliance review has been undertaken for the FTSE 100 non-financial IFRS 7 compliant firms. In contrast to prior studies, the results reveal that disclosure levels were high, and in some cases firms produce more disclosure than mandatorily required. As recent reviews of disclosure have shown, extant research lacks a coherent definition of quality that links to the original motivations for financial reporting. An argument has been built for adopting compliance levels as an appropriate proxy for the quality of disclosure. This study tests this definition via key stakeholders’ views both ex-ante and ex-post. A combination of content analysis of comment letters, survey data and semi-structured interviews was adopted. Though there is some evidence to the contrary, by and large, it seems that this definition of quality carries a level of integrity. Following this, a determinants study was undertaken investigating what factors drove the quality and quantity of these disclosures. It was found that higher levels of visibility (news stories versus analysts following), a share issue during the year and a higher volume of derivative assets held were statistically significant to quality. Those determinants significant to quantity were lower levels of managerial ownership and higher levels of news stories versus analyst following. However, of greater interest was the finding that the determinants of the quantity of disclosures were different to quality – and often in opposition. Thus, for the first time in a mandatory reporting environment, the findings cast doubt over the appropriateness of researchers adopting quantity as a proxy for quality. Finally, prior literature has shown that accounting standards requirements can be biased towards certain user groups as a result of the lobbying process. If this was the case for IFRS 7 then the compliance results presented could be unfairly skewed as proposals might be adopted to benefit those stronger lobbyists. It is pleasing to note that this study found that the IASB appears to have approached all groups’ responses fairly and appropriately. However, it should be noted that the evidence suggests that if the geographical origin of a response was from either the UK or from outside of the remaining countries of Europe and the US there was a significantly lower chance of the proposed amendment(s) being accepted. This study contributes to the literature by presenting results from a first full review of financial instruments reporting under IFRS 7, and by providing evidence that full, partial, non- and over-compliance are most likely explained by legitimacy theory, impression management and proprietary costs theory. In addition, this is the first study to review key stakeholders’ attitudes towards the financial instruments reporting requirements, thus helping to justify using the level of compliance as an appropriate measure of quality, whilst providing a cautionary conclusion about the possible inappropriateness of adopting quantity as a proxy.

One of the main factors that spurred the 2008 financial crisis was the trading of securitized products without a clear understanding of the risks that those products bore. I argue that an appropriate regime of mandatory disclosure is the primary instrument regulators should refer to in order to correct the informational asymmetries that are present in the market for securities products. Subsequently, I take into consideration the CSA proposed legislation for the mandatory disclosure of securitized products and analyze its main components under the light of the principles of investor protection and market efficiency. I find that the new legislation should be welcome by market operators because it is a good balancing effort between the necessity to protect the investors and fostering the efficiency of the market.

One of the main factors that spurred the 2008 financial crisis was the trading of securitized products without a clear understanding of the risks that those products bore. I argue that an appropriate regime of mandatory disclosure is the primary instrument regulators should refer to in order to correct the informational asymmetries that are present in the market for securities products. Subsequently, I take into consideration the CSA proposed legislation for the mandatory disclosure of securitized products and analyze its main components under the light of the principles of investor protection and market efficiency. I find that the new legislation should be welcome by market operators because it is a good balancing effort between the necessity to protect the investors and fostering the efficiency of the market.

This dissertation develops three game-theoretic models in each of its three chapters to explore the strategic implications of transparency in the administrative state. Each model contains a similar set of three players: a political principal, an agent representing an agency or a bureaucrat, and an interested third party. The models consider the utility of transparency as a tool for mitigating regulatory capture, in which the third party influences the agent to serve its interest rather than the principal's. Chapter 1, "Transparency and Media Scrutiny in the Regulatory Process," models transparency as the volume of records that the media receives from the agent, which raises the likelihood of news alleging low costs to the interest group after the agent's proposal of lax regulation. Such reports cost these two players and may deter the group from capturing the agent. Among other things, the model describes costs due to distorted policy proposals and loss of information when greater transparency causes inaccurate reports to increase along with accurate ones. In Chapter 2, "Transparency and Power in Rulemaking," transparency is a requirement for the agent to disclose an item of information, such as his message from the regulated party or his signal about the cost of regulation. The agent can always disclose this information, but doing so may increase the principal's power to set regulation higher than he or the regulated party desires. A key result is that transparency is not necessary for the principal to know as much as the agent does but may discourage the generation of the message or signal. Chapter 3, "A Reverse Rationale for Reliance on Regulators," suggests that an agent can benefit a principal not by gathering information from an outsider that she cannot access, but by preventing her from obtaining or acting on this information. The agent benefits the principal when he induces additional effort in the outside party's information generation because he is more adversarial toward that party than she is. Mandatory disclosure of the agent's information is harmful because it effectively allows the outsider to communicate directly with the principal and provide lower quality information.

Cette thèse analyse l’impact de la réglementation des divulgations environnementales ainsi que l’utilité de ces informations pour les investisseurs, partie prenante susceptible d’influencer l’entreprise en l’amenant à produire l’information environnementale utile, éventuellement imposée par la réglementation. Notre recherche s’appuie sur une approche quantitative basée sur le traitement des scores de divulgation environnementale au travers de modèles de régression ordinaire et censuré. Les scores de divulgation environnementale ont été calculés à partir d’une grille de mesure élaborée par nos soins et utilisée pour l’analyse de 121 entreprises européennes. Les résultats montrent que la réglementation des divulgations environnementales a un impact positif direct et induit sur le niveau de divulgation environnementale des entreprises. Par contre, l’impact des recommandations gouvernementales ou émanant d’organismes professionnels est identiquement faible. Les résultats montrent également que l’utilité des divulgations environnementales pour les investisseurs n’est pas uniforme : elle dépend de l’opacité des divulgations financières de l’entreprise, de son exposition aux risques environnementaux et de la structure de son actionnariat. Enfin, dans un contexte où l’information environnementale publiée est largement, voire totalement volontaire, les résultats montrent que les entreprises orientent leur communication environnementale en fonction des parties prenantes qu’elles identifient comme prioritaires. / Using disclosure scores to assess the level of environmental information provided by 121 randomly selected European listed companies, this research has two major goals. First, it examines whether environmental information is useful to investors. Second, it analyzes whether it is worth regulating environmental disclosures. Results reveal that the usefulness of environmental disclosures for investors is not uniform. It varies among firms, increasing with (i) exposure to environmental risks; (ii) ownership dispersion; (iii) the level of financial opacity. Furthermore, results also reveal that regulation has a direct and induced favorable impact on corporate environmental disclosure. After controlling for the usual determinants of environmental disclosures, we show that firms subject to a law that regulates environmental reporting disclose more than those domiciled in countries that have developed guidelines only. Finally, in a context where environmental information is mainly voluntary, we show that firms reserve their environmental communication for their preferred stakeholders.

Bakgrund Humankapitalet är en viktig del i företaget med anledning av att det är essentiellt i den dagliga affärsverksamheten samt att det är en viktig immateriell resurs där kunskap, nätverk av relationer och kulturell styrka bidrar till företagets framgång. I och med samhällets utveckling består företag idag till allt större del av humankapital men trots detta råder det inte samstämmighet för hur humankapital ska redovisas i årsredovisningarna. Detta i samband med att högre krav ställs på redovisning av humankapital blir det intressant och relevant att undersöka hur företag väljer att upplysa om humankapital i årsredovisningarna. Syfte Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur företag inom bemanningsbranschen redovisar humankapital i deras årsredovisningar, samt undersöka hur redovisningen utvecklats över tid och hur den skiljer sig mellan företagen. Metod Studien är en longitudinell flerfallstudie utförd genom en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Tidigare forskning om motiv bakom upplysningar ligger till grund för den insamlade empirin tillsammans med legitimitetsteorin, intressentteorin och institutionell teorin. Studien utgår från en deduktiv ansats med induktiva inslag. Slutsats Studiens resultat visar att de undersökta företagen upplyser genom tre teman; engagemang, arbetsmiljö och kompetensutveckling. Vidare dras slutsatsen att redovisning av humankapital inom bemanningsbranschen liknar varandra till väldigt stor del. Anledningen kan vara att samtliga företag ingår i samma bransch. Studien bidrar med bevis för att företag inom bemanningsbranschen upplyser om humankapital i stor mängd i förhållande till resterande information i deras årsredovisning. / Introduction Human capital is an important part of the company because it is essential in day-to-day business and is therefore an important intangible resource where knowledge, networks of relationships and cultural strength contribute to the company's success. The development of society contributes to the fact that companies increasingly consist of human capital, but despite this, there is no consensus on how human capital should be reported in the annual reports. This, in conjunction with higher requirements for accounting for human capital, will make it interesting and relevant to investigate how this is done. Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate how companies in the staffing industry report human capital in their annual reports, and also to investigate how accounting has developed over time and how it differs between companies. Method This study is a longitudinal multi-case study conducted through a qualitative content analysis. The empirical data is based on previous research of the motives behind disclosures together with the theory of legitimacy, stakeholder theory and institutional theory. This study is based on a deductive approach with inductive elements. Conclusion This study's results show that the investigated companies disclose information through three themes; commitment, work environment and qualification. Furthermore, it is concluded that accounting for human capital in the staffing industry is very similar to each other. The reason may be that all companies are part of the same industry. The study provides evidence that companies in the staffing industry disclose human capital in large numbers in relation to other disclosed information in the annual report.

Reporting regarding issues that are related to Corporate Social Responsibility have come into more and more focus lately. Most countries currently have a limited or no mandatory regulations regarding what should be included in either an annual report or in a stand-alone report in terms of CSR. However Denmark is one of the pioneers regarding mandatory CSR regulations and as such has certain rules and regulations that their companies have to follow. Even if today’s regulations are heavily focused on financial information that companies have to disclose there also exists regulations regarding non-financial information. As with the financial crisis that occurred in the early 21st century that led to stricter disclosures requirements for financial information we see a need for regulating non-financial information and especially CSR information. We have been able to see that some companies have been able to manipulate their CSR report so as to put themselves in a good light. Therefore the question arises if mandatory CSR disclosure will have any influence on the stock market.The purpose of this study was to examine if Swedish companies and the Swedish stock market could benefit from having mandatory CSR regulations, similar to those that exist in Denmark. We sought to examine if fulfilling certain amount of CSR criteria would reduce the volatility of a company’s stock price.In order for us to achieve the purpose of our research we had to conduct an experiment on the Swedish companies. In order for us to conduct the experiment we firstly had to select what type of research we would conduct and what type of research was most suitable for our research. In order for us to achieve an answer to our research question and to be able to fulfill the purpose of our research we decided to conduct a quantitative research. We have chosen to utilize the quantitative research approach as this would allow gathering sufficient data from existing databases and reports. The database that we chose to utilize in order for us to find our sample population was NASDAQ OMX Nordic where the companies had be listed as of 2015-03-31 as well as having financial data for the entire year of 2014, meaning between 2014-01-01 and 2014-12-31. NASDAQ OMX Nordic was also used in order for us to find market indexes. In order for us to able to answer our research question we developed three different hypotheses based on our theoretical framework that would later be tested.From the testing of our hypotheses we could determine that there is a relationship between the amount of CSR that a company reports, in terms of how many of our CSR criteria they fulfill, and the historical volatility of the company’s stock price. We were also able to determine that there exists a relationship between the amount of CSR that a company reports and the level of Beta that a company has. This implied that the Swedish stock market could benefit from mandatory CSR regulation as it would reduce the volatility which would also be beneficial for the company’s different stakeholders.

In recent years, the impact of the permanently reinvested earnings (PRE) assertion on the financial reporting environment has grown tremendously. Under Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 740, a firm making the PRE assertion is able to avoid recognizing residual U.S. taxes on earnings of its foreign subsidiaries so long as it reinvests those earnings outside of the U.S. Suboptimal reinvestment is a potential consequence for PRE-asserting firms due to limited reinvestment opportunities abroad. Suboptimal foreign reinvestment, typically high amounts of reinvestment in financial assets, may be viewed negatively by financial statement users, particularly those users concerned with the default risk of a firm. The disclosure of PRE-related information varies substantially and the actual degree of compliance with this accounting standard has been questioned by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). While firms may believe it is advantageous to obscure their PRE-related activity due to media or political concerns, recent academic literature has highlighted a negative relation between disclosure quality in financial statements and credit risk. The purpose of this study is to examine the relations among foreign reinvestment strategy, PRE disclosure, and long-term credit ratings. First, I examine the direct effect of a firm's reinvestment strategy on its long-term credit rating. Second, I investigate the relation between a firm's reinvestment strategy and its choice to disclose PRE-related information. Third, I study the relation between a firm's choice to disclose PRE-related information and its long-term credit rating. Finally, I examine the potential attenuating effect of the PRE disclosure on the negative relation between financial reinvestment and credit ratings. Using hand collected PRE data for Fortune 500 firms from 1997-2010, I find a negative relation between the intensity of a firm's reinvestment in financial assets and its (1) long-term credit rating and (2) choice to disclose PRE-related information. Furthermore, I find a positive relation between a firm's choice to disclose PRE and its credit rating. / Ph. D. / In recent years, U.S. multinational companies (MNCs) have been criticized by politicians and media members for using accounting and tax rules to avoid recognizing and paying substantial amounts of tax. Under U.S. accounting rules, U.S. MNCs include the earnings of both domestic and foreign subsidiaries in their net income for financial statement reporting purposes. Furthermore, companies are required to recognize income tax expense on the earnings from both domestic and foreign subsidiaries; this income tax expense recognition lowers companies’ net income. However, companies may make the permanently reinvested earnings (PRE) assertion, allowing them to avoid recognizing income tax expense on the income earned from foreign subsidiaries so long as they reinvest those earnings outside the U.S. Therefore, companies making the PRE assertion capture the income earned from foreign subsidiaries without the penalty of recognizing income tax expense. In order to make the PRE assertion, companies must (1) have a foreign reinvestment plan or strategy and (2) disclose required PRErelated information in the footnotes to their financial statements. One consequence of making the PRE assertion is suboptimal foreign reinvestment in financial assets (cash hoarding, financial investments with low returns, etc.). This may be viewed negatively by financial statement users, particularly those users concerned with the credit risk of a company. I investigate the relations among the effects of making the PRE assertion, (1) company reinvestment strategy and (2) financial statement disclosure quality, and the perception of a company’s credit risk. First, I find that companies more heavily reinvested in financial assets than operating assets (buildings, equipment, etc.) are (1) viewed negatively by credit rating analysts and (2) less likely to disclose PRE-related information. Second, I find that companies disclosing PRE-related information are viewed more favorably by credit rating analysts. Collectively, the results of this study indicate that (1) a company’s reinvestment strategy and its PRE disclosure quality are viewed as risk relevant by credit rating analysts and (2) a company with a reinvestment strategy focused on financial assets is less likely to disclose PRE-related information.

O atendimento às informações obrigatórias que integram pronunciamentos emitidos por órgãos normativos vem sendo tema de estudos nacionais e internacionais, que buscam identificar os níveis de divulgação de determinados mercados ou setores da economia. Alinhado a este cenário, o objetivo do presente estudo é analisar o nível de evidenciação das demonstrações financeiras divulgadas no ano de 2012 pelas empresas listadas na Bolsa de Valores, Mercadorias e Futuros de São Paulo (BM&FBOVESPA) em relação aos requisitos exigidos no CPC 27, que estabelece o tratamento contábil para ativos imobilizados. Foi elaborado um índice para apurar o nível de cumprimento da divulgação, denominado de Índice de Não Divulgação (IND) que obteve 32,9% como resultado. Para identificar as características que poderiam influenciar o índice encontrado, foram desenvolvidas hipóteses atreladas ao porte da empresa, à emissão de American Depositary Receipt (ADR), à empresa de auditoria prestadora do serviço e ao segmento de mercado. Os testes de diferenças de média apontaram que todas as características utilizadas podem explicar o cumprimento das informações obrigatórias para ativo imobilizado. Para se alcançar o pleno atendimento aos requisitos obrigatórios, as empresas demandam um período de adequação, bem como para os reguladores do mercado ampliarem a orientação e fiscalização, adquirindo a confiabilidade das informações divulgadas.

O atendimento às informações obrigatórias que integram pronunciamentos emitidos por órgãos normativos vem sendo tema de estudos nacionais e internacionais, que buscam identificar os níveis de divulgação de determinados mercados ou setores da economia. Alinhado a este cenário, o objetivo do presente estudo é analisar o nível de evidenciação das demonstrações financeiras divulgadas no ano de 2012 pelas empresas listadas na Bolsa de Valores, Mercadorias e Futuros de São Paulo (BM&FBOVESPA) em relação aos requisitos exigidos no CPC 27, que estabelece o tratamento contábil para ativos imobilizados. Foi elaborado um índice para apurar o nível de cumprimento da divulgação, denominado de Índice de Não Divulgação (IND) que obteve 32,9% como resultado. Para identificar as características que poderiam influenciar o índice encontrado, foram desenvolvidas hipóteses atreladas ao porte da empresa, à emissão de American Depositary Receipt (ADR), à empresa de auditoria prestadora do serviço e ao segmento de mercado. Os testes de diferenças de média apontaram que todas as características utilizadas podem explicar o cumprimento das informações obrigatórias para ativo imobilizado. Para se alcançar o pleno atendimento aos requisitos obrigatórios, as empresas demandam um período de adequação, bem como para os reguladores do mercado ampliarem a orientação e fiscalização, adquirindo a confiabilidade das informações divulgadas.