The Interplay Between Country-By-Country Reporting and Geographic Segment Reporting in the Extractive Industries: Evidence from the United Kingdom

Abstract IFRS 8 “Operating Segments” and the UK Reports on Payments to Governments Regulations (UK RPGR 2014 No. 3209) both produce geographically disaggregated information, yet they embody different regulatory logics and serve distinct constituencies. IFRS 8’s management-oriented, business-model approach governs geographic segment reporting (GSR), while the UK RPGR mandates public Country-by-Country Reporting (CbCR) of extractive payments (EPD) to enhance accountability and governance in resource-rich contexts. This study investigates whether mandatory EPD adoption is associated with changes in GSR practices among UK-listed extractive multinationals. Using hand-collected data over 2010–2021, we document consistently high compliance with EPD requirements and substantively more detailed country-level information in EPD reports than in IFRS-based segment notes. Panel regressions indicate that mandatory EPD adoption is not systematically associated with changes in geographic segment aggregation or disclosure extent. The findings point to an institutional decoupling between public transparency regimes and international accounting standards. This has policy relevance for the International Accounting Standards Board, European regulators, and civil society advocates, underscoring limits of current segment reporting frameworks and the need for coordinated approaches to geographic transparency.