2024/09/12 by Yan Lin, Rui Shen, Jasmine Wang +1 · 71 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Accounting #Annual report #Auditing, Earnings Management, Governance #Business #Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting #Environmental science #Sustainable Finance and Green Bonds
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/1475-679x.12575
published in Journal of Accounting Research 62(5), 1941-1988 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 2024/09/12 · openalex created_date 2024/09/14 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
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.