Analysis of the determinants of disclosure practices in the accounting for financial instruments

Abstract

In this paper we analyse the determinants of disclosure level in the accounting for financial instruments of Portuguese listed companies. Considering the mandatory adoption of International Accounting Standards after 2005, our ultimate objective is to analyse the characteristics of companies that are closest to the requirements of IAS 32 and IAS 39. We have constructed an index of disclosure and computed the index score for each Portuguese listed company. We tested the relation between the index score and several firm-specific characteristics. We argue that the agency, the signalling and the political costs theories do not fully explain Portuguese reality, where there is a large degree of family ownership and bank-oriented financing policies. We therefore advocate that introducing variables related to specific characteristics of Portuguese companies and managers, in the context of other theoretical frameworks, notably the contingency theory, brings important insights to this type of analysis.