• The influence of market and company characteristics on voluntary disclosure

In this paper, the determinants of the voluntary disclosure level of firms have been investigated during a period of deep financial crisis. Two disclosure indexes used as dependent variables are proposed: a global index based on both quantitative and qualitative disclosure and a solely quantitative voluntary index. Firstly, the explanatory variables have been selected taking into account the main contributions of international literature. In addition, some specific variables have been introduced in order to take into account the peculiarities of Italian market system and the ongoing financial crisis. A positive relationship has been found among the global voluntary disclosure (GVD) and the number of employees, the dividend policy, and the presence of independent directors on the board. On the contrary, a negative correlation with respect to the percentage of the firm’s outstanding shares held by directors (not independent) exists. With reference to the quantitative voluntary disclosure (QVD) index, there is a positive correlation with the number of employees, the dividend policy, the market floating, and the incidence of intangible assets. Moreover, such (quantitative) a disclosure is different depending on the industrial membership sector.