In today's economy, companies try to publicize their good value by revealing related information in their financial reports as a way of convincing their stakeholders that investment in them is a good move. This paper delves into the relationship that exists between characteristics of corporate governance and structure of ownership on voluntary disclosure in interim financial reports (half yearly) published, focusing on variables that affect voluntary disclosure of the ASE Jordanian listed companies. The dynamic panel system GMM estimation was employed on the data from 72 selected ASE listed companies for the period of [2009][2010][2011][2012][2013], and the results show that a substantial degree of voluntary disclosure is demonstrated in high level corporate governance awareness and implementation in Jordan. Specifically, the factors of board compensation, audit firm size, and government ownership significantly impact voluntary disclosure. Aside from that, voluntary disclosure in the half-yearly reports has potential impact on market capitalization.

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The focal point of this study is on voluntary disclosure in interim financial reports of the ASE listed companies in Jordan. The initiatives of voluntary disclosure have been under global scrutiny since the last two decades, owing to various stakeholders' persistent needs to be more informed about their corporations. As the mandatory corporate disclosure itself is insufficient, the study attempts to assess the directions of causality between the degree of voluntary disclosure and corporate performance in the half-yearly reports released by companies listed in the Jordan's ASE for the period of 5 years (2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013). The Granger tests were employed to ascertain the causality between voluntary disclosures and corporate performance in the half-yearly reports. From the test outcomes, most companies (50) show no directional causality, 21 companies demonstrate unidirectional causality while one company has bidirectional causality. The quality of voluntary disclosure appears to have high correlation with the performance of companies their half-yearly reports. Thus, high levels of transparency and quality of disclosure lead to good governance and enhance company's performance, while low voluntary disclosure makes it more difficult to forecast the company's performance.

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