Transparency and quality of financial disclosures. The case of Romanian listed companies
Transparency and quality of financial disclosures. The case of Romanian listed companies

Summary/Abstract: This paper addresses the transparency and the quality of financial disclosures of listed entities in the case of an emerging economy (i.e. Romania), in order to shed some light on the particular local context of the country and its impact on accounting practices. We analyze the entire population of non-financial entities listed in the first tier of the Bucharest Stock Exchange for the 2012 financial year. We are limited in our research by the size of the sample, which depends, however, on the small size of the Romanian stock market. In order to compensate for the small size of the sample, we assess 50 items related to disclosure, synthesized in two scores, i.e. transparency and quality. Also, we identify some factors associated with disclosure by investigating the correlation with several firm-related factors. Our results reveal a medium level of transparency and quality of Romanian listed companies, with significant variations between firms and between the sub-scores. The most important factors correlated with disclosure are company size and the presence of institutional investors. The results confirm to some extent most of the basic assumptions of the agency theory and also prove the importance of a new variable for emerging economies, specifical-ly the presence of institutional investors.

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