This paper examines the determinants and economic consequences of non-financial disclosure quality, which is measured according to the ratings of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure provided by the Ministry of Economic Affairs in the Netherlands. We find that firms with better CSR performance, greater external financing needs, and stronger corporate governance tend to provide higher quality CSR disclosures. In return, these firms gain greater analyst coverage, higher levels of institutional ownership, greater stock liquidity, higher valuations in SEOs, and lower yields to maturity in bond issuances. These benefits apply largely to firms with strong CSR performance. Collectively, our findings suggest that higher quality CSR disclosures deliver economic benefits.
We examine how the regulation of financial reporting frequency affects corporate innovation. We use a difference-in-differences approach based on a sample of treatment firms that experience a change in their reporting frequency and matched industry peers and control firms whose reporting frequency remains unchanged. We find that higher reporting frequency significantly reduces treatment firms' innovation output, but find no evidence that the net externality effect on industry peers is statistically significant. Together, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that frequent reporting induces managerial myopia and impedes corporate innovation.
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