The relationship between religiosity and voluntary disclosure quality: a cross-country evidence from the banking sector

Rami Salem*, Ernest Ezeani, Xi Song

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)
60 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This study examines whether there is a relationship between religiosity and voluntary disclosure quality (VD_Q). We utilise a three-dimensional approach to capture the VD_Q on an international sample of 1,484 bank-year observations in 12 countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region over 14 years period from 2006 to 2019. Our findings indicate that religiosity is positively associated with banks' VD_Q. Our findings also show that the association between religiosity and VD_Q is more noticeable in banks operating in countries with a low level of legal protection, low level of control of corruption and during the crisis period. We further illustrate that the influence of religiosity is more intense on the spread and usefulness of information dimensions than the quantity dimension. These empirical findings are robust to alternative proxies of religiosity and sample specification. This result supports the notion that religiosity enhances corporate disclosure quality and reduces the asymmetric information gap between managers and outside users of information.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)983–1023
Number of pages41
JournalReview of Quantitative Finance and Accounting
Volume60
Issue number3
Early online date14 Nov 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2023

Keywords

  • Informal institutions
  • Legal protection and control of corruption
  • Religiosity
  • Voluntary disclosure quality

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Accounting
  • General Business,Management and Accounting
  • Finance

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