abstract
Under GAAP, SEC and exchange listing rules, managers must disclose material
information. We construct a disclosure specification incorporating managers’ obligation
to disclose material information and voluntary disclosure incentives. We demonstrate
that tests of the incentives to voluntarily disclose information must recognize such
information is often disclosed because of an underlying duty to disclose. Our empirical
tests isolating the impact of materiality on firms’ disclosures have greater explanatory
power over empirical tests that do not. Voluntary disclosure incentives better explain
disclosure when the information is less likely to be material. Tests of voluntary
disclosure theories ignoring materiality likely lead to incorrect inferences.
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