Accounting for Financial Instruments: An Analysis of the Determinants of Disclosure in the Portuguese Stock Exchange

This paper analyzes the determinants of disclosure level in the accounting for financial instruments of Portuguese listed companies. We have constructed an index of disclosure based on IAS 32 and 39 disclosure requirements and computed the index score for each company. Consequently, this study also...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIDEAS Working Paper Series from RePEc
Main Authors Patrícia Teixeira Lopes, Lúcia Lima Rodrigues
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 01.01.2006
Subjects
Corporate governance
Financial instruments
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Summary:This paper analyzes the determinants of disclosure level in the accounting for financial instruments of Portuguese listed companies. We have constructed an index of disclosure based on IAS 32 and 39 disclosure requirements and computed the index score for each company. Consequently, this study also analyzes the characteristics of companies that are closest to IAS before 2005. The analysis includes variables that capture intrinsic features of Portuguese companies and institutional regulatory context, such as capital structure and characteristics of the corporate governance structure, within contingency theory. We could not find significant influence of corporate governance structure and of financing structure. We conclude that disclosure degree is significantly related to size, type of auditor, listing status and to the economic sector. This research reveals areas for improvement of the Portuguese companies' reporting practices and suggests areas for intervention of the Portuguese capital markets regulator in the context of mandatory IAS after 2005.