Abstract:
The study is an attempt to examine empirically the level of disclosure of financial information
upon adoption of International Accounting Standards (IASs) in Bangladesh and the
association between a number of corporate attributes and levels of disclosure in corporate
annual reports in Bangladesh. An unweighted disclosure index comprising 411 items was
prepared and applied to 188 corporate annual reports for years ending between January and
December 2003. The association between the extent of disclosure and various corporate
characteristics was examined using multiple linear regression models. It was found that
corporate size, profitability, stock exchange security category (Zcategory
or not), size and
international link of company's auditor, and multinational subsidiary are all significantly
associated with the extent of disclosure. The results were consistent with some previous
studies while they contradict with the findings of some other studies.