Descriptive statistics are shown in Table 1.
Panel A contains the indicator variables whilst
Panel B has the continuous variables. An
increase in both BSC and SR disclosure from
2007 to 2008 is shown clearly in Panel A. The
number of firms with no SR and BSC
disclosure (firms with 0) decrease from 22 in
4
The efficient market hypothesis suggests that
financial markets already reflect all available
information and as such share prices instantly
change to reflect any new information (Fama,
1965).
2007 to 13 in 2008 while BSC disclosure
(firms with 2) increase from 42 (about 44%) in
2007 to 48 (50%) in 2008. The descriptive
statistics also show that only about 42% of the
firms included in the sample belong to
environmentally sensitive industries such as
utilities, energy, telecommunication,
transportation and materials (which includes
the mining industry).
Since lagged values are used for earnings per
share growth (GEPS), the 2006 and 2007
GEPS are shown in Table 1 Panel B. GEPS in
2007 has a maximum (minimum) of 324.10 (-
132.90) and a mean (standard deviation) of
18.8 (62.6) while GEPS in 2006 has lower
maximum (minimum) 182.70 (-213.00) and a
mean (standard deviation) of 12.41 (47.95).
This indicates higher shareholder return
volatility in 2007 compared to 2006. The
year-end share prices for 2007 and 2008 show
similar trend with 2008 showing higher
volatility as reflected in its range of 111.14
(compared to 64.32 in 2007) and a negative
mean of -6.12 (compare to 4.67 in 2007).
Despite the fact that Australia has not been as
badly hit by the global financial crisis
compared to other countries such as the US
and many European countries, the descriptive
statistics for the Top 100 Australian companies
show that the Australian share market has not
been immune to the crisis. The natural log of
2007 (2008) revenues have a minimum of 6.45
(5.6), maximum of 10.73 (10.92) with mean of
9.33 (9.43) and standard deviation of .78 (.75).