| Summary: | 碩士 === 東吳大學 === 會計學系 === 93 === This study tries to explain the behavior of corporate environmental disclosures from cost-benefit perspectives. It examines the influences to the level of environmental disclosures in annual reports made by investors’ information costs, a firm’s ability to withstand the proprietary costs, and the environmental media visibility.
The sample comprises listed firms included in the cement, oil refining and petrochemicals, pulp and paper, steel, and electronic industries from 2000 to 2003. We adopt the content analysis and the measurement method developed by Wiseman (1982) to quantify and analyze the environmental information disclosed in annual reports.
This study uses the multivariate regression analysis. The dependent variable is the level of environmental disclosures (ED), and the independent variables include beta index (BETA), trading volume to total shares ratio (Volume), return of assets (ROA), debt to equity ratio (D/E), environmental media visibility (NEWS), firm size (S), and industry classification (N). Of the independent variables, the beta index and the trading volume to total shares ratio are proxies for investors’ information costs; the return of assets and the debt to equity ratio are proxies for a firm’s ability to withstand the proprietary costs.
The results show that, during the sample period, the beta index (BETA) and the trading volume to total shares ratio (Volume) both present insignificant association with the environmental disclosures. In other words, investors’ information costs don’t seem to significantly influence the environmental disclosures of domestic firms. The results also show that the return of assets (ROA) is not significantly associated with the environmental disclosures in 2000, but from 2001 to 2003, it presents significantly negative association which is opposite to the expected hypothesis. The debt to equity ratio (D/E) presents significantly negative association only in 2003 but not from 2000 to 2002. Totally, the domestic firm’s ability to withstand the proprietary costs is not the significant determinant of the environmental disclosures, either. The environmental media visibility (NEWS) presents significantly positive association with the environmental disclosures in the four-year period. It represents that the more the firm’s environmental news in the current year, the more the level of environmental disclosures in the annual report is. The firm size (S) and the industry classification (N), the control variables in the study, are also important determinants of corporate environmental disclosures.
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