Effects of Disclosure of the Extent of Sustainability Indicators on Earnings Quality

Abstract

Sustainability of company is a general management concept that assures the continuity of activities of company and supports the long-term economic success of that. With regard to the importance of concept of sustainability in the recent century, this study aims to investigate the effects of disclosure of the extent of sustainability indicators on earnings quality for the companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) in the years 2011- 2016. Since, at present, there is not any mandatory requirements and regulations about the disclosure of sustainability indicators in Iran, the disclosure of such indicators for the companies in TSE is at a low level. The required data for this study came from annual reports of board of directors, financial statements and websites of the sample companies from the TSE. Results from Panel data EGLS regression showed that disclosure of the extent of sustainability indicators, in general, has positive and significant effects on earnings quality. Also, findings showed that among the three dimensions of sustainability, the indicators relating to social and economic dimensions have negative and significant effects on earnings quality while that relating to environment dimension has positive and significant effects on earnings quality.

Keywords

• sustainability indicators
• earnings quality
• panel data egls regression