Compliance with pension-related mandatory disclosures and debt financing

Almaghrabi, K. S., Opong, K. and Tsalavoutas, I. (2021) Compliance with pension-related mandatory disclosures and debt financing. Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, 48(1-2), pp. 148-184. (doi: 10.1111/jbfa.12479)

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Abstract

Using hand‐collected data on the level of pension‐related mandatory disclosures required by International Accounting Standard 19 Employee Benefits , we test whether compliance levels with these disclosures convey information that affects firms’ access to the public instead of the private debt market, as well as the cost of their new debt issues. We document a higher tendency to access the public debt market for firms with higher levels of pension‐related disclosure. Furthermore, we find that firms with higher levels of pension‐related disclosure enjoy a lower cost in terms of issuance of public debt, but not a lower cost for private debt issues. Thus, the benefits of disclosure in reducing information risk are only realisable when creditors rely heavily on financial statements in their decision making, due to the limited access to private information. Additional tests reveal that high compliance levels effectively mitigate the negative effect of pension deficits on the cost of public debt. These findings provide novel evidence in the extant literature on the role of mandatory (and, in particular, pension‐related) disclosures on firms’ debt financing. They also have important policy implications.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Tsalavoutas, Professor Yannis and Opong, Professor Kwaku and Almaghrabi, Khadija
Authors: Almaghrabi, K. S., Opong, K., and Tsalavoutas, I.
College/School:College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Accounting and Finance
Journal Name:Journal of Business Finance and Accounting
Publisher:Wiley
ISSN:0306-686X
ISSN (Online):1468-5957
Published Online:14 July 2020
Copyright Holders:
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<fragment>Copyright © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd</fragment>
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First Published:First published in 48(1-2): 148-184
Publisher Policy:Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy

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