Dynamic Relationship Between Voluntary Disclosure And Conservatism

Abstract

Despite the several studies on the relationship between voluntary disclosure and conservatism, empirical findings are not conclusive. In this paper, I argue that the relation is not static but dynamic. I investigate the dynamic relation between voluntary disclosures and conservatism by examining their relation around debt financing. Debt financing can be a good natural experimental setting to examine the relation between voluntary disclosures and conservatism because both of them play an important role in reducing information asymmetry during debt financing. Particularly, I hypothesize that less conservative firms are more likely to increase voluntary disclosures around debt financing than at other times. Consistent with my hypothesis, empirical results show that less conservative firms are more likely to increase voluntary disclosures around debt financing than at other times. Overall, these results support the dynamic relationship between voluntary disclosures and conservatism.