There has been considerable research in respect of voluntary disclosure by companies and factors that may explain such disclosure. However, most of the research has been centred in developed countries. This study extends the previous literature by examining voluntary disclosure in a developing country, namely Kenya. Over the last decade, the Kenyan Government has initiated several far-reaching reforms at the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) in order to mobilise domestic savings and attract foreign capital investment. These measures include privatisation of state corporations through the stock exchange and allowing foreign investors to own shares in the listed companies. This study provides a longitudinal examination of voluntary disclosure practices in the annual reports of listed companies in Kenya from 1992 to 2001. The study investigates the extent to which corporate governance attributes, ownership structure and company characteristics influence voluntary disclosure practices. Copyright (c) 2006 The Authors; Journal compilation (c) 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

The study attempts to explain why Australian companies revalue their fixed assets, when a revaluation, by itse[f, has no discernible direct effect on cash flows and is costly to carry out. A revaluation is hypothesised to affect contracting and political costs. It may also help resolve problems associated with information asymmetries, or be used to signal information to investors. The results support the proposition that economic forces help explain the decision to revalue assets.An asset revaluation refers to the restatement of the asset's book value (carrying amount) to approximate some current value. Revaluation involves an accounting entry whicli, by itself, has no discernible direct effect on the firm's cash flows, except for the cost of undertaking and recording the revaluation. Why, then, have asset revaluations been commonplace in Australia and, for that matter, elsewhere?Earlier studies have looked at asset revaluations from an information content perspective. * They have attempted to identify abnormal returns on the firms'securities around the time the market became informed that a revaluation had taken place, with mixed results. Brown and Finn (1980) suggested that the question of whether asset revaluations per se affect share prices could better be answered if it were understood why revaluations were made. That is, the incentives that motivate managers voluntarily to revalue their firms' assets should be explicated, so that the wealth effects of their decisions can be understood. We argue that a revaluation affects contracting and political costs. Hence managers are not indifferent to how and when they revalue their firms' assets. We also argue that an asset revaluation may help resolve problems caused by information asymmetries, in that insider-managers can signal important information which they hold, by revaluing the assets they manage.

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This paper provides evidence on underpricing in Australia using 340 industrial initial public offerings over the period 1980 to 1990. It aims to explain why underpricing is consistent with rational behaviour by focusing on differential information across IPO firms. We measure differential information along two dimensions, the quality and the quantity of information. We propose that the quality of information is reflected in the reputation of independent advisers to the preparation of the issuing firm's prospectus. Three such independent external advisers are examined: the investigating accountant, the underwriter, and the expert. The results provide strong support for the reputation effect of the underwriter on underpricing. Although there is evidence showing a negative relation between underpricing and the reputation of the investigating accountant and the expert, it is not significant. Our results also support the differential quantity of information hypothesis. Firms with more information available are, on average, less underpriced.

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