The Disclosure of Abridged Financial Statements of Italian Unlisted SMEs in Bankruptcy Procedures: An Empirical Analysis.

Italian legislation prescribes a simplified format of financial statements which affect disclosure. A possible consequence is that users do not have a satisfactory comprehension of investments and liabilities. This lack of information could be particularly significant when firms go in bankruptcy procedures. The paper analyses two non paired samples of Italian failed and non failed SMEs in order to compare the level of disclosure of their financial statements. The main expected result is that the abbreviated financial statements (especially in the case of failed firms) do not give adequate information.