Abstract & Overview
Theories have been developed in the disclosure literature to explain the reasons behind the decision to disclose more information. Empirical evidence does not consistently support disclosure theories and results found are contradictory. The difficulty in measuring voluntary disclosure might be one of the reasons influencing on these divergences. In this paper, we investigate two key questions related to disclosure measurement. First, we aim to empirically test if use of disclosure indices that measure different information attributes determines validity of disclosure theories. Second, we investigate how disclosure indices design influences results. Results show that determinants of more specific information attributes are different than those that influence less specific attributes. Furthermore, independently of the information attribute that is measured, disclosure measure design influences results.