Corporate environmental disclosures: Competitive disclosure hypothesis using 1991 annual report data

Abstract

This paper studies the scope and accuracy of environmental disclosures made in corporate annual reports. It also attempts to provide a modest test of the voluntary disclosure hypothesis in the context of environmental disclosures. A scoring procedure is used to examine the scope of environmental disclosures for 168 companies in six industries and 18 countries, and the relationship between the mean scores and environmental performance is analyzed for a subsample of companies. The results indicate (1) significant variations in environmental disclosures and hence no clear support for the voluntary disclosure hypothesis, and (2) no apparent association between disclosure and environmental performance.