When Do Voters Respond to Campaign Finance Disclosure? Evidence from Multiple Election Types

In recent American elections political candidates have actively emphasized features of their fundraising profiles when campaigning. Yet, surprisingly, we know comparatively little about how financial information affects vote choice specifically, whether effects differ across types of election, and how robust any effects are to other relevant political signals. Using a series of conjoint experiment designs, I compare the effects of campaigns’ financial profiles on vote choice across direct democratic and representative elections, randomizing subjects’ exposure to additional political cues. I find that while the financial profile of candidates can affect vote choice, these effects are drowned out by non-financial signals. In ballot initiative races, the explicit policy focus of the election appears to swamp any effect of financial information. This paper is the first to explore the comparative effects of financial disclosure across election type, contributing to our understanding of how different heuristics interact across electoral contexts.

Risk Information in Non-Financial Disclosure

This paper aims to research the topics related to risk included in non-financial disclosure (NFD) of companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) and explore factors that influence the risk topics ratio in NFD. We applied a content analysis using topic modeling to discover latent risk topics in NFD. Next, with Ward’s clustering, we identified four groups of companies with a homogenous risk topic mixture. For causal analysis, to explain the differences in risk topics ratio, we used qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), which allowed us to obtain three paths (variable configurations) leading to the high ratio of risk topics in NFD. Our results suggest that companies disclosing risk information extensively in their NFDs concentrate almost solely on social risk matters. In contrast, companies talking briefly about environmental and social (E&S) risk prepare their NFDs with a more balanced distribution of E&S topics and their financial implication. In general, the companies’ exposure to E&S risk and the use of NFD standards and guidelines as well as the type of NFD impact the space dedicated to risk information. This paper contributes to academics and regulators, filling the gap about risk disclosure in the NFD, identifying the nature of corporate risk disclosures, and upgrading research about determinants of risk information in non-financial disclosure.

Determinants of Financial Disclosure

The article examines the issues of the dependence of the composition of the accounting (financial) reporting forms, prepared based on the results of the accounting process, on the theoretical views prevailing in scientific circles and in society as a whole. The author analyzes the main provisions of Western liberalism, conservatism, Western European social democracy and draws corresponding parallels, reveals the relationship with those elements that make up financial statements. According to the results of the study, the author claims that the domestic professional community is on the verge of another wave of reforming accounting knowledge and accounting practice.

Non-financial disclosure and women on board: Is a mandatory approach on gender quotas effective to increase communication quality?

The present study investigates the effects of women on companies' boards on the quality of non-financial information, and the influence that a mandatory ap-proach has on this relationship. Previous studies have dealt with analysing the ef-fects of female presence on CSR or ESG information, but few pieces of research have taken into account other strands of non-financial information and have re-sorted to an index to measure its quality. Therefore, this study aims to contribute by extending the analysis to any type of non-financial information communicated by a company. Moreover, the present research contributes to the strand of litera-ture investigating the role of women on companies' boards. In fact, the results of the OLS regression analysis demonstrated that the presence of women with an ex-ecutive role positively influences the quality of disclosure in Italy, and this rela-tionship is not influenced by the advanced stage of application of the regulation on gender quotas. Moreover, disclosure quality is significantly higher for firms that disclose a non-financial statement. Nevertheless, the study suffers from some limi-tations with respect to the sample size and the analysis of the trend in reporting af-ter the introduction of Directive 2014/95/EU.

The assurance of non-financial disclosure: A longitudinal analysis of the academic and professional literature

Various studies argue that non-financial information is particularly relevant for business stakeholders. To reduce the risks related to information asymmetries and "window dressing" practices and to enhance the credibility of non-financial information, the need for assurance has arisen. In recent years, scientific and professional interest in the issues related to the assurance of non-financial information has increased. Up to now, there have been very few studies on the evolution of non-financial disclosure (NFD) assurance, nor have scholars addressed the possible gaps and future research perspectives in this field. A systematic review is developed with the following aims: first, to explore the evolution of the NFD assurance literature by systematising academic studies (i.e., papers published in scientific journals) and professional contributions (i.e., papers published in non-scientific sources) from the auditing field, and second, to understand whether theory and practice have influenced each other in the field of NFD assurance, i.e., whether a bridge between theory and practice can be identified within this discourse. The main findings are the following: firstly, four stages can be identified in the evolution of the study of NFD assurance, and secondly, there is virtually no interaction between theory and practice, as practically no scientific papers are mentioned in professional papers, while academic scholars consider professional publications only as empirical data sources.

What do stakeholders in the construction industry look for in non-financial disclosure and what do they get?

Purpose This study aims to verify whether non-financial disclosure in the construction industry (CI) responds to stakeholders’ information needs and explores the most frequent topics disclosed in terms of the environmental, social and governance (ESG) pillars. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a bag-of-words method and latent Dirichlet allocation to match stakeholders’ expectations with information disclosed by companies. This paper assesses the publicly available non-financial disclosure of the 46 European CI companies covered by the Refinitiv database with ESG scores. Findings This study provides two main findings. First, it shows the mismatch between stakeholders’ information needs and what they get in non-financial reporting. Despite non-financial information in CI disclosure, the information disclosed by many CI companies does not meet their users’ information needs. CI companies commonly focus on their sustainable products and health policy while omitting other topics of interest – the circular economy, unethical business behaviour, migrant policy and human trafficking. Second, this study indicates the defects of simple disclosure analysis based on keywords and highlights the importance of context in information analysis. Practical implications The proposed novel approach to text analysis offers several practical applications. It is a more effective tool for evaluating companies’ sustainability performance. It may be especially important to ESG rating providers. Additionally, the results may be of interest to companies wishing to improve their communication, and, in particular, to regulators and standard setters in two matters. The first is the need for more pressure to increase awareness among issuers to shift from disclosing large amounts of non-financial information to disclosing good quality non-financial information, which would be appropriate for meeting stakeholders’ expectations. The second is the necessity for deepening issuers’ understanding of the diverse stakeholders’ information needs, considering the substantial differences among industries and improving communication to meet them. Originality/value This study introduces text analysis that, apart from keywords, considers the context of these keywords’ appearances in a report’s narration. It allows a significantly improved understanding of the information disclosed and a more stable grounding for reasoning, leading to better and informed decisions. Moreover, this study verifies how the information disclosed matches stakeholders’ needs. Finally, it enriches the literature on sectoral analysis concerning non-financial disclosure.

Bank Liquidity Risk: Significance of Financial Disclosure and Governance Practice

The objective of the study is to show the remedial effect of bank liquidity risk in the marketplace by disseminating financial information and practicing corporate governance mechanisms. The link between financial disclosure, corporate governance, and banks' liquidity risk management in Bangladesh is examined in this paper. The study used panel data on 32 commercial banks from the 2008 to 2018 with 346 observations collected from published annual reports. Based on the preliminary diagnosis, the study chose the two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression method to minimize the errors arising from heteroskedasticity, autocorrelation, and endogeneity issues. The study found that adequate financial disclosure and corporate governance practices minimize bank liquidity risk to maintain a stable image in the minds of investors and withstand immense regulatory pressure. To allow banks to detect issues early, they must implement changes quickly and be more robust to crises, thus risk management efficacy and excellent corporate governance implementation are required. Moreover, banks are mainly concerned about liquidity risk as it directly affects the market's performance and stability. Liquidity crises can be eradicated by proper monitoring and providing information pertaining to risks to prudent investors in a reliable and transparent corporate culture.