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Evidence That Greater Disclosure Lowers The Cost Of Equity Capital

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  • Christine A. Botosan

Abstract

The effect of corporate disclosure on the cost of equity capital is a matter of considerable interest and importance to both corporations and the investment community. However, the relationship between disclosure level and cost of capital is not well established and has proved difficult for researchers to quantify. As described in this article, the author's 1997 study (published in The Accounting Review) was the first to measure and detect a direct relationship between disclosure and cost of capital. After examining the annual reports of 122 manufacturing companies, the author concluded that companies providing more extensive disclosure had a lower (forward‐looking) cost of equity capital (measured using Value Line forecasts with an EBO valuation formula that derives from the dividend discount model). For companies with extensive analyst coverage, differences in disclosure do not appear to affect cost of capital. But for companies with small analyst followings, differences in disclosure do appear to matter. Among this group of companies, the firms judged to have the highest level of disclosure had a cost of equity capital that was nine‐percentage points lower than otherwise similar firms with a minimal level of disclosure. Closer analysis of some of the specific disclosure practices also suggests that, for small firms with limited analyst coverage, there are benefits to providing more forward‐looking information, such as forecasts of sales, profits, and capital expenditures, and enhanced disclosure of key non‐financial statistics, such as order backlogs, market share, and growth in units sold. In closing, the article also discusses an interesting new study (by Lang and Lundholm) that suggests there is an important distinction between effective corporate disclosure and “hyping the stock.” The findings of this study show that while higher levels of disclosures are associated with higher stock prices, sudden increases in the frequency of disclosure are viewed with skepticism.

Suggested Citation

  • Christine A. Botosan, 2000. "Evidence That Greater Disclosure Lowers The Cost Of Equity Capital," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 12(4), pages 60-69, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:jacrfn:v:12:y:2000:i:4:p:60-69
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-6622.2000.tb00019.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Devalle, Alain & Rizzato, Fabio & Busso, Donatella, 2016. "Disclosure indexes and compliance with mandatory disclosure—The case of intangible assets in the Italian market," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 8-25.
    2. Al-Hadi, Ahmed & Al-Yahyaee, Khamis Hamed & Hussain, Syed Mujahid & Taylor, Grantley, 2019. "Market risk disclosures and corporate governance structure: Evidence from GCC financial firms," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 136-150.
    3. Omaima Hassan & Claire Marston, 2010. "Disclosure measurement in the empirical accounting literature - a review article," Accountancy Discussion Papers 1004, Accountancy Research Group, Heriot Watt University.
    4. Marius Gros & Alexander Nevrela, 2020. "Revisiting the effectiveness of the German accounting enforcement reforms: a replication study," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 70(1), pages 135-164, February.
    5. Paul, Jack W. & Largay III, James A., 2005. "Does the "management approach" contribute to segment reporting transparency?," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 303-310.
    6. Hassan, Omaima A.G. & Romilly, Peter & Giorgioni, Gianluigi & Power, David, 2009. "The value relevance of disclosure: Evidence from the emerging capital market of Egypt," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 79-102, March.
    7. Thomas Post & Helmut Gründl & Lisa Schmidl & Mark S. Dorfman, 2007. "Implications of IFRS for the European Insurance Industry—Insights From Capital Market Theory," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 10(2), pages 247-265, September.
    8. Ekaterina E. Emm & Gerald D. Gay & Honglin Ren, 2019. "Corporate risk exposures, disclosure, and derivatives use: A longitudinal study," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(7), pages 838-864, July.
    9. Nasiri, Maryam Akbari & Narayan, Paresh Kumar & Mishra, Sagarika, 2019. "Reaction of the credit default swap market to the release of periodic financial reports," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    10. Anderson, Anne & Gupta, Parveen P., 2009. "A cross-country comparison of corporate governance and firm performance: Do financial structure and the legal system matter?," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 61-79.
    11. Asad Ali Rind & Aitzaz Ahsan Alias Sarang & Ameet Kumar & Muhammad Shahbaz, 2023. "Does financial fraud affect implied cost of equity?," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 4139-4155, October.
    12. Robert M. Bushman & Abbie Smith, 2003. "Transparency, financial accounting information, and corporate governance," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 9(Apr), pages 65-87.

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