Cost of equity capital and disclosure level in Brazilian companies/ Custo do capital proprio e nivel de disclosure nas empresas brasileiras

This paper investigates and correlates disclosure level with cost of capital for Brazilian companies. Theory says that better disclosure results in reduced cost of capital, and prior studies in other countries confirm the theory, but there are reasons to believe that the same effect is not observed in the Brazilian market. The research took into account data obtained from Economatica database, referring to 222 enterprises listed in the Stock Exchange. The conclusion drawn from such data shows that, as far as the Brazilian market goes, disclosure level does not influence the cost of capital. These findings require further detailed investigation. Besides, two other results were found, which not only are contrary to the expectations originated from the theory, but also reinforce findings from other existing research: bigger enterprises offer higher return than smaller enterprises, and corporate governance practices have not resulted in a change in cost of capital. Key words: Cost of capital, disclosure, corporate governance. Este trabalho investiga se o nivel de disclosure influencia o custo do capital para as empresas negociadas no mercado brasileiro. A teoria diz que melhor e maior disclosure resulta em menor custo de capital, e existem estudos conduzidos no exterior comprovando a teoria, mas ha razoes para se crer que o mesmo comportamento nao e observado no mercado brasileiro. A pesquisa compreendeu o exame dos dados de 222 empresas listadas em bolsa, extraidas da base de dados Economatica. Com base nos dados pesquisados, a conclusao que se chega e que no mercado brasileiro o nivel de disclosure nao afeta o custo de capital. Esta questao requer uma investigacao mais detalhada. Adicionalmente, verificaram-se outros dois resultados contrarios a expectativa alicercada na teoria, mas que reforcaram os resultados de outras pesquisas ja realizadas: que as maiores empresas oferecem taxa de retorno superior as menores e que a implementacao de praticas diferenciadas de governanca corporativa nao resultou em alteracao do custo de capital. Palavras-chaves: custo de capital, disclosure, governanca corporativa