（2006）Assurance on General Purpose Non-Financial Reports：An International Comparison.pdfVIP

Assurance on General Purpose Non-Financial Reports: An International Comparison Roger Simnett University of New South Wales Ann Vanstraelen# University of Antwerp Wai Fong Chua University of New South Wales Current version: 31 August 2006 Acknowledgements: The authors appreciate the financial support of the Australian Research Council, and the support of CPA Australia for access to their TBL database. The research assistance of Anna Kuo, Anna Huggins, Lei Chen and Linda Pellegrino are also much appreciated. # Corresponding author: Ann Vanstraelen, Universiteit Antwerpen, Department of Accounting Finance, Prinsstraat 13, B-2000 Antwerp, Belgium. Email: ann.vanstraelen@ua.ac.be Assurance on General Purpose Non-Financial Reports: An International Comparison ABSTRACT: Many leading organizations around the world are producing general-purpose non-financial reports (GPN-FRs), including social, community, and environmental and sustainability reports. Only some of these reports are independently assured, and if so, the assurance provider may or may not be a member of the accounting profession. In order to better understand the development of this assurance service from an international perspective, we identify factors associated with the incidence of independent assurance of GPN-FRs and the choice of assurance provider. In particular, we question to what extent country-specific factors explain the demand for assurance and the type of assurance provider while controlling for firm- specific factors. Based on recent insights that governance can serve as a substitute for absent or weak country-level institutions (Durnev an