Mandatory Environmental Disclosures by Companies Complying with IASs/IFRSs: The Cases of France, Germany, and the UK

Elena M. Barbu, Pascal Dumontier, Niculae Feleagă and Liliana Feleagă

The International Journal of Accounting, 2014, vol. 49, issue 2, 231-247

Abstract: This study investigates whether the adoption of a single set of accounting standards, such as IASs/IFRSs, guarantees the harmonization of accounting practices within a country and across countries, or whether differences in reporting practices persist because of dissimilarities in reporting habits and institutional settings. To this end, we investigate whether the level of environmental disclosure under IFRSs is related to the size of the reporting firm, and the strength of legal and regulatory constraints on environmental disclosures in the country where the firm is domiciled. Results indicate (1) that environmental disclosures imposed by IFRSs increase with firm size, and (2) that firms domiciled in countries with constraining environmental disclosure regulations (i.e., France and the UK) report more on environmental issues than firms domiciled in countries with weakly constraining regulations (i.e., Germany). This suggests a strong impact of national regulations on IFRS reporting. Taken as a whole, our results support the view that IFRSs are not applied consistently across firms and across countries, notably because of persistence of reporting traditions and discrepancies in national legal requirements.

Keywords: Environmental disclosure; Environmental accounting regulations; International Accounting Standards/International Financial Reporting Standards (IASs/IFRSs); France; Germany; UK (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M14 M41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (36)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:accoun:v:49:y:2014:i:2:p:231-247

DOI: 10.1016/j.intacc.2014.04.003

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