The effect of institutional owners on the voluntary disclosure of Dutch listed firms

This study examines the effect of institutional owners on voluntary disclosure in Dutch listed firms. Institutional ownership is expected to have a positive effect on voluntary disclosure. This study distinguishes itself by focussing on only institutional ownership and its focus on Dutch listed firms. Moreover, different studies suggest that firm size is also related to voluntary disclosure of firms, as larger firms tend to disclose more information. The voluntary disclosure is measured by using a checklist including various information areas, which results in a disclosure index per firm for a sample of 66 firms. The results show that institutional ownership has a small effect on voluntary disclosure, as firms with a higher percentage of institutional owners do have a higher disclosure index. Notably, firm size has a more powerful effect on disclosure, which indicates that larger firms disclose more information. So the results in this study support the fact that institutional owners and firm size have a positive effect on the voluntary disclosure of Dutch publicly listed firms.