This study investigates the sustainability disclosure effects of the introduction of the Companies Act 2006 Regulations 2013 in the United Kingdom. The regulation mandates the disclosure of information on greenhouse gas emissions, gender distribution and human rights issues. We examine two research questions: first, whether firms increased disclosure on the mandated topics after the regulation became effective relative to a control group, and second, whether a potential increase in disclosure is moderated by firms’ reporting incentives, namely, firms’ capital market visibility, growth orientation, governance structure, prior voluntary sustainability disclosure levels and critical media coverage. Our sample consists of the FTSE-350 firms and a matched control group of US firms. We use textual analysis to assess the disclosure of the mandated sustainability topics in firms’ annual reports. Specifically, we examine two types of disclosure, namely, the disclosure of the mandated key performance indicators and the narrative disclosure. Our results reveal a significant increase for both types of disclosure relative to the control group. Overall, this treatment effect tends to be smaller for firms with higher reporting incentives, i. e., reporting incentives mitigate the regulatory effect. Taken together, our results suggest that both standards and reporting incentives shape firms’ sustainability disclosure level.

本研究调查了英国引入 2006 年公司法和 2013 年法规对可持续发展披露的影响。该法规要求披露有关温室气体排放、性别分布和人权问题的信息。我们研究两个研究问题：第一，在监管生效后，相对于对照组，企业是否增加了对规定主题的披露；第二，披露的潜在增加是否受到企业报告激励措施（即企业资本市场）的调节。知名度、增长方向、治理结构、先前自愿的可持续发展披露水平和重要媒体报道。我们的样本由 FTSE-350 公司和匹配的美国公司对照组组成。我们使用文本分析来评估公司年度报告中规定的可持续发展主题的披露情况。具体来说，我们研究了两种类型的披露，即法定关键绩效指标的披露和叙述性披露。我们的结果显示，与对照组相比，两种类型的披露均显着增加。总体而言，对于具有较高报告激励措施的公司来说，这种处理效果往往较小，即。即，报告激励措施减轻了监管影响。综上所述，我们的结果表明标准和报告激励措施塑造了公司的可持续发展披露水平。