We study environmental and social (E&S) disclosures in annual reports. Using the word embedding model to examine over 210,000 annual reports from 24,271 public firms in 30 international countries/regions between 2001 and 2020, we create an E&S dictionary that allows us to document trends in annual report E&S disclosure. Specifically, we find: (1) increases in length and boilerplate language and (2) decreases in specificity. Our results also suggest that E&S disclosure quality improves after the adoption of voluntary ESG reporting frameworks but deteriorates after disclosure mandates. Our findings provide systematic evidence on the evolution of E&S disclosure in annual reports over the past two decades and shed light on how voluntary and mandatory standards have shaped global E&S reporting practices.

中文翻译：

---

年报中环境和社会披露的全球演变


我们研究年度报告中的环境和社会 （E&S） 披露。使用 word embedding 模型来检查 2001 年至 2020 年间来自 30 个国际国家/地区的 24,271 家上市公司的 210,000 多份年度报告，我们创建了一个 E&S 词典，使我们能够记录年度报告 E&S 披露的趋势。具体来说，我们发现：（1） 长度和样板语言增加，以及 （2） 特异性降低。我们的研究结果还表明，在采用自愿性 ESG 报告框架后，环境和社会披露质量有所提高，但在披露要求后会恶化。我们的研究结果为过去二十年年度报告中环境和社会披露的演变提供了系统证据，并阐明了自愿性和强制性标准如何影响全球环境和社会报告实践。