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Using legitimacy theory, this study investigates the extent of social and environmental disclosure (SED) of Indian textile firms over the 2010-2012 period and the factors that explain such disclosure practices. Firm-level characteristics and corporate governance variables are incorporated as key predictors for these important disclosures. This study reveals a relatively low extent of 13.57% of SED in annual reports of Indian textile firms. This finding of low overall voluntary disclosure is largely consistent with the previous studies particularly in the emerging economies setting. The results show that firm size, international brand, audit committee independence, CEO duality, profitability, international certification obtained and year of reporting are statistically significant factors in explaining the variation in extent of SED. Potential concern may arise from such a lack corporate communication related to social or environmental activities and risks as it may lead to questions whether firms domiciled in India and their international brand-name affiliations have been transparent and accountable regarding their production and supply activities. The theoretical contribution of this study is the successful testing of legitimacy theory in the context of an emerging economy. This study highlights the influence of international exposures such as brand development and corporate governance attributes have on the SED communication practices. The dearth of social and environmental disclosure by Indian textile firms has implications for foreign purchasers of branded products as international companies have been implicated in sub-optimal social or environmental practices or incidents. Such international brand-name companies may be responsible for such breaches and face significant adverse publicity if negative social or environmental impacts or breaches of rules or regulations are found subsequent to the supply of these textile products. Significant negative media publicity may have unfavourable consequences on the reputation of these firms and their directors as well as their long-term financial performance. Firms with branded textile products likely use disclosure as an important means to promote an image of them being forward thinking socially and environmentally responsible entities for preserving their legitimacy status. This research offers empirical evidence in regard to social and environmental (SED) practices that may assist regulatory bodies to introduce more focused and effective non-financial disclosure guidelines and regulations.

ABSTRACTThis study examines the individual and joint effects of multinationality, tax havens, and intangible assets on transfer pricing aggressiveness. Based on a hand-collected sample of 286 publicly listed U.S. multinational firms over the 2006–2012 period (2,002 firm-year observations), the regression results indicate that multinationality, tax haven utilization, and intangible assets are significantly positively associated with transfer pricing aggressiveness. The regression results also show that firms magnify their international transfer pricing aggressiveness through the joint effects of intangible assets, multinationality, and tax havens. Overall, the empirical findings demonstrate that the utilization of tax havens and the level of intangible assets are economically important factors that assist firms in obtaining tax benefits through transfer pricing aggressiveness.Data Availability: All data are available from public sources identified in the paper.

ABSTRACTThis study examines the effect of tax haven utilization on the implied cost of equity capital (ICOE) based on a sample of publicly listed U.S. multinational firms over the 2006–2014 period. Our regression results show that tax haven utilization is significantly positively associated with the ICOE. In terms of economic significance, we find that, on average, a one-standard deviation increase in tax haven utilization leads to an increase in the ICOE for our sample firms by approximately 0.30 percent or 30 basis points. We also observe that our regression results are robust to a number of endogeneity checks. In additional analysis, we find that high agency costs are likely to magnify the positive association between tax haven utilization and the ICOE, while high independent director monitoring could moderate this association. Overall, this study provides unique insights into the effect of tax haven utilization on the ICOE.