Global Evolution of Environmental and Social Disclosure in Annual Reports *
Journal of Accounting Research forthcoming
72 Pages Posted: 13 Jul 2023 Last revised: 1 Mar 2024
Date Written: August 11, 2024
Abstract
We study environmental and social (E&S) disclosures in annual reports. Using the word embedding model to examine over 210,000 annual reports from 24,271 public firms in 30 international countries/regions between 2001 and 2020, we create an E&S dictionary that allows us to document trends in annual report E&S disclosure. Specifically, we find: 1) increases in length and boilerplate language, and 2) decreases in specificity. Our results also suggest that E&S disclosure quality improves after the adoption of voluntary ESG reporting frameworks but deteriorates after disclosure mandates. Our findings provide systematic evidence on the evolution of E&S disclosure in annual reports over the past two decades and shed light on how voluntary and mandatory standards have shaped global E&S reporting practices.
Keywords: ESG disclosure, Nonfinancial information, Textual analysis, Machine learning
JEL Classification: G15, G38, M14, M40, M48
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation