Table 1 Measurement of the variables.
Variable | Abbreviation | Measurement |
|---|---|---|
Dependent variable | ||
Financial reporting lag | FRL | The number of days between the end of a firm’s accounting year and the date on which such information is released to the Saudi stock market |
Main explanatory variable | ||
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance | ESG | The Bloomberg ESG disclosure score |
Control variables | ||
Audit committee size | ACS | The number of audit committee members |
Audit committee independence | ACI | The number of independent directors in the audit committee over the total number of members |
Firm size | SIZE | The logarithm of the sampled company’s total assets. |
Auditor reputation | AR | If a firm is audited by a Big 4 audit firm, this variable equals 1 and 0 otherwise |
Profitability | ROA | Operating profits divided by total assets |
Leverage | LEV | Total debt over total assets |
Institutional ownership | IO | The number of equity shares held by institutions over the total number of equity shares |
Family ownership | FO | The percentage of shares held by the family |
COVID-19 | COVID | Dummies for the years 2020 and 2021 |
