Información del artículo
Abstract
Measurement of information disclosed by companies is a complex task. Accounting research usually relies on disclosure indices to obtain a proxy for the information disclosed by companies. However, there is no consensus about the best design for these indices. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if there are significant differences among the indices that are used in disclosure studies. Three indices that measure disclosure of forward-looking information are compared: A “quality index” of a multidimensional nature; a “scope index” designed specifically to measure the scope of information, and a “quantity index” that measures information disclosed exclusively in terms of quantity. Results of the empirical analysis indicate that although the indices are correlated, they have a big impact in the rankings of companies. Evidence against the idea of the irrelevance of the particular index chosen is provided.
Key words:
Disclosure research
disclosure indices
forward-looking information
Resumen
La medición de la información divulgada por las empresas es una tarea compleja. La investigación contable normalmente se apoya en índices de revelación para obtener una aproximación cuantitativa a la información divulgada por las compañías. Sin embargo, no hay consenso sobre el diseño de estos índices. El objetivo del trabajo es investigar si hay diferencias significativas entre los índices empleados en los estudios sobre divulgación de información. Se comparan tres índices que miden la revelación de información previsional: un índice de calidad, de naturaleza multidimensional; un índice de alcance, diseñado específicamente para medir la cobertura de la información; y un índice de cantidad que mide la información divulgada exclusivamente en términos de cantidad. Los resultados del análisis empírico indican que aunque los índices están correlacionados, tienen un gran impacto en los rankings de las compañías. El análisis proporciona evidencia en contra de la irrelevancia del diseño de un índice en particular.
Palabras clave:
Investigación sobre divulgación de información
índices de revelación
información previsional
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