This study examines the value of vo

This study examines the value of voluntary and mandatory disclosure in a market that applies
International Accounting Standards (IAS) with limited penalties for non compliance. The lack of
enforcement creates an element of choice in the level of mandatory disclosure by companies. Using
panel-data analysis, our empirical results show that, after controlling for factors such as asset size and
profitability, mandatory disclosure has a highly significant but negative relationshipwith firmvalue. This
result, although puzzling from a traditional perspective, is consistent with the predictions of analytical
accounting models, which emphasize the complex interplay of factors determining disclosure effects.
Our results also show that voluntary disclosure has a positive but insignificant association with firm
value. This lack of statistical significance supports the view that there is a complex interplay of different
factors determining the relationship between disclosure and firm value.
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