Corporate governance and risk disclosure quality: Tunisian evidence

Methodology: We examine 152 annual reports of Tunisian non-financial-listed firms during 2008-2013.We use the manual content analysis method to measure the risk disclosure quality.

Findings: We find that the quality of risk disclosure in Tunisian companies is relatively low. We also find that the quality of risk disclosure is positively associated with institutional ownership, board independence, the presence of women on the board, the presence of family members on the board, and the independence of audit committee. Managerial ownership has a negative effect on risk disclosure quality. Finally, we find that the revolution decreases the influence of concentration ownership, government ownership, family ownership and audit committee size on risk disclosure quality.

Originality/value:
Using a comprehensive set of corporate governance mechanisms and a new measure for risk disclosure quality in Tunisia, we provide the first empirical evidence on the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on risk disclosure quality in a developing country. Our study has theoretical and practical implications for both developed and developing countries.