An Investigation of Voluntary Disclosure in Annual Reports : The Malaysian Evidence

This study examines the relationship betweenfive firm-specific characteristics and the general level of financial ratios that were voluntarily disclosed by companies listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLCE). Thev five firm-specific characteristics examined are: firm size, leverage, assets-in-place, type of auditor and sector of the company. The results obtained from cross-sectional regression show that firm size is the only variable significantly related to the extent of financial ratio disclosure. however, based on the ectension empirical model, it is found out that a type of auditor is also significant but only for the construction sector. As a general finding, the level of voluntary disclosure of financial ratios by firms in Malaysia is still low