Corporate carbon opacity and voluntary GHG statement assurance

Rina Datt, Gabriel Donleavy, Qingliang Tang

Research output: Chapter in Book / Conference PaperConference Paperpeer-review

Abstract

Corporate voluntary greenhouse gas (GHG) statements contain managers' private information about future sustainability potential which is difficult for external investors to verify. We hypothesise that firms with a higher degree of carbon information asymmetry will have a greater incentive to voluntarily purchase an independent GHG statement of assurance. We use the data collected from the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and a total sample of 768 of the largest listed US companies to test the hypothesis. The results show that our proxies for carbon opacity are significantly associated with the propensity of voluntary GHG assurance. In addition, the tendency for GHG assurance manifests in our sample firms whose financial information is deemed transparent.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2014 American Accounting Association Annual Meeting and Conference on Teaching and Learning in Accounting: Global Engagement & Perspectives, 2-6 August 2014, Atlanta, Georgia
PublisherAmerican Accounting Association
Number of pages1
Publication statusPublished - 2014
EventAmerican Accounting Association. Annual Meeting -
Duration: 1 Jan 2014 → …

Conference

ConferenceAmerican Accounting Association. Annual Meeting
Period1/01/14 → …

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