Assurance of non-financial information and the Cost of Debt

Abstract

There is a growing demand for voluntary external assurance of corporate social responsibility reporting. This paper tries to understand the effect of assurance on the cost of debt. Evidence is gathered regarding corporate social responsibility assurance and the cost of debt over the years 2013-2015. It investigates this relationship by selecting companies that are publicly listed in the Netherlands, Germany and the UK. The aim of this paper is to examine the effect of assurance on the cost of debt, by making use of a sample of 426 publicly-listed companies. The main conclusion is that assurance has a negative effect on the cost of debt. The results are controlled for both economic as firm-specific factors. Firms and their stakeholders can take advantage of the outcomes of this research to gain better terms regarding their cost of debt.