Succinctly, there are the following considerations related to the variables regarding to the accounting disclosure:
The level of disclosure presents reflexes including in the liquidity of the company (AMIHUD and MENDELSON, 1991);
investors attribute a more systematic risk for an asset with low information level than to an asset with high information level
(HANDA and LINN, 1993); the capital international mobility is facilitated though to the more complete disclosure levels
(YOUNG and GUENTER, 2003); higher levels of disclosure may result in lower costs of capital (BAUMAN and NIER,
2004).
Bushman, Piotroski and Smith (2004, p. 210) highlight that, for the companies listed in stock exchanges, the
transparency, which refers to the good practices of corporative governance, is regarding to the common availability of
specific information about such companies. For Malacrida and Yamamoto (2006, p. 69), the transparency, and consequently
the disclosure, “are both consolidated in one of the principal pillars of the corporative governance, of great emphasis in all
reflections about the task and are also present in most of the current existing codes”. Ho and Wong (2001, p. 142) argue that
"the transparency is the greatest indicator of the corporative governance standard in the economy”. In accordance with
Coffee (1999), there is a trend for the creation of a governance structure relatively uniform, to be globally adopted by the
companies, which would be based upon convergent orientations, which would demand, for example, the adoption of
accounting standards recommended by the IASB (which would be a functional convergence).
3
Disclosure of financial instruments and convergence of accounting standards
The volatility of the financial markets has the potential to conduct the companies to the bankruptcy, or significantly
affect their value (SA ITO and SHIOZER, 2004). To protect themselves from this volatility, the companies may use
derivative financial instruments, which “provide an efficient and low-cost method to the final users, in order to protect and
administrate the risks related to the interest taxes, commodities prices or exchange taxes” (CARVALHO, 2002, p. 38).
However, due to the high degree of leverage provided by the derivatives, because of the risks regarding to its use, its
knowledge is essential for the investors (LOPES and CARVALHO, 1999, p. 6). So, the accounting regulator bodies have
the essential role in demanding the companies to accomplish a minimum disclosure about this task.
Due to the differences between the accounting standards and the differences in the treatment of the financial
information in different countries, it presents the context of the researches which study the convergence of the accounting
standards (see: HAVERTY, 2006; LEMES, CARVALHO and OLIVEIRA-LOPES, 2007). The body which seeks this
convergence is the IASB, issuing pronounces in international level, which objective is “to provide the world’s integrating
capital markets with a common language for financial reporting” (IASB, 2008a, p. 1). Since 2001, more than 100 countries
started to require or authorize the use of IFRS (IASB, 2008a), for example, Australia and New Zealand.
5
Convention