Does environmental performance affect environmental disclosure of italian companies?

The aim of the present study is to verify the presence and the evolution of (voluntary) environmental disclosure with reference to Italian firms. We have examined the documentation of listed firms both in 2006 and 2009, that have been chosen because they immediately precede and immediately follow the emanation in Italy of the legislative decree n. 32 of 2007 that introduced for the first time in Italy – at least in voluntary terms - the information about environment. Therefore, the analysis of the two years mentioned allows us also to verify whether and how firms operated after this new legislative indication. We propose an approach based on multivariate regression analysis in order to assess the evolution and the determinants of voluntary environmental disclosure. The dependent variable is represented by the disclosure index, that we have estimated through the analysis of the corporate documents of the years 2006 and 2009. Independent variables are as follows: firm size, business industry, financial situation, public shareholders, legislation and environmental performance. In contrast with the previous studies on this issue, the results of our analysis show an inverse (negative) and statistically significant relation between voluntary environmental disclosure and environmental performance. Moreover, the results show the positive effect of the legislative decree n. 32 of 2007. Finally, our analysis confirms the positive relation between environmental disclosure and the presence of government shareholdings in the ownership structure.