In this study we explore the association between environmental audit and the quality of environmental disclosure as measured by voluntary and timely disclosure. Relying on a multiple theory framework and using a sample of 81 French non-financial companies listed on the SBF 120 index covering the six-year period from 2012 to 2017, we found a positive and statistically significant relationship between the level of voluntary disclosure of environmental information and the environmental audit committee, the environmental auditor's BIG 4, debt levels, firm size, earnings management, and the industry. In addition, findings indicate that the environmental audit committee, CSR committee, the environmental auditor's BIG 4, earnings management, firm size, and the industry have an impact on the timely disclosure of environmental information. However, the regression of the results showed that there is no relationship between CSR committee and the level of the voluntary disclosure of environmental disclosure.

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Academic research has identified several factors that affect price movements; however, the scenario changes abruptly in the case of very short time price changes (VSTPC). This topic is not specifically examined in the existing literature; nonetheless, the behavior of the market microstructure is quite different at the subsecond scale. Indeed, below a certain psychological time threshold, most factors typically influencing price changes cease to apply. This paper analyzes several parameters considered to affect price changes and identifies four of them as potentially influencing VSTPC. These factors are previous volatility, scarce liquidity, high quantity exchanged, and stop-loss (SL) orders (seldom mentioned in the literature). These four parameters are examined by means of a mathematical model, audit trail data analysis, Granger-causality testing, and agent-based model. The results of these four techniques converge to suggest a nonlinear combination of previous volatility, liquidity, and SL orders as the main causes of excess volatility. However, contrary to mainstream literature on trading time above a certain psychological threshold, the volumes exchanged are not integral agents for VSTPC. Currently, financial markets face many ultrafast orders, yet a coherent theory of price change at time scales incomprehensible by humans and only manageable by computers is still lacking. The theory presented in this paper attempts to fill this gap. The outcome of such a theory is important for purposes of market stability, crisis avoidance, investment planning, risk management, and high-frequency trading.

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This paper addresses the little investigated topic of the relationship between the speed of exchange servers, an absolute reference for the system, and trading speed, considered relative to the former. This is a major issue, as trading speed overwhelming the capability of the server to cope with the incoming orders might jeopardise the orderly functioning of the markets. It will be shown how, by raising the speed of trading and increasing the number of the agents operating in the market, it is possible to generate a crisis, no matter how performing the exchange server is. The paper presents a theoretical framework and then verifies its occurrence by analysing audit trail data. The theoretical framework shows a scenario in which under certain, heavy but by no means uncommon, conditions, the excess speed of the trading agents with respect to servers is capable of exacerbating price volatility, leading to vicious feedback loops capable of potentially creating a financial crisis. The empirical part analyses data taken from a particularly volatile day and compares them with much less volatile days. It results that, because of excessive speed, one of the most widely used techniques for minimising risk, order churning, can cause a major crisis.