The relevance of environmental accounting information: An experimental study

This article examines the relevance of environmental accounting information in decisions to invest in a given company. A sample of 32 students was divided into two groups. Each student was instructed to make his decision using two different decision perspectives, long-term and short-term. Participants were provided with a set of information to support their decisions and requested to indicate the value to be allocated to the company under analysis. They were then invited to participate in to a post-decision evaluation exercise in which they indicated the types of information relevant for the allocation of resources. The results of the study revealed a greater average investment in company B, for both the short-term and long-term perspectives. Of the 32 participants in the experiment, seven (22%) considered the environmental accounting information highly relevant for their investment decision. No participant selected this kind of information as the most relevant for the decision, although three (9%) indicated it as the second most relevant. Results show that, from the point of view of the participants in the experiment, environmental accounting information is relevant to the decision to invest.