Audit Committees and Financial Reporting Quality

Audit Committees and Financial Reporting Quality PDF Author: Chaudhry Ghafran
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This thesis examines the impact of audit committee characteristics on financial reporting quality in the context of a large sample of UK companies over the period 2007-2010. The notion of financial reporting quality is assessed by looking at the audit quality and earnings quality of the firms. This study utilises the audit fee and non-audit fee ratio as its proxies for audit quality and accruals based earnings management models as its proxies for earnings quality. The findings from the multivariate analysis show that audit committee meetings and financial expertise exert a significant positive impact on audit fees. Investigating expertise further, this study finds no support for the notion that accounting expertise influences audit fees, however a significant positive influence on audit fees is recorded for the non-accounting financial expertise. However, the holding of additional directorships has a significant negative impact on audit fees. This study also finds that audit committee members' financial expertise has a negative and significant impact on non-audit fee ratio suggesting a strong support of members with financial expertise on issues relating to auditor independence. The study also documents that audit committee members serving longer on the boards do not prefer to purchase high amount of non-audit services from the incumbent auditor. This study also records a significant positive impact of the holding of additional directorships on the provision of non-audit fee ratio, thus signifying a profound support for the busyness hypothesis which argues that overstretched directors are not very good monitors of financial reporting quality. Furthermore, this study finds broadly consistent evidence that audit committees meeting three or more times per year and fully independent audit committees exert a significant positive impact on the quality of reported earnings. This study also finds some evidence (depending on the earnings model used) that the level of ownership of audit committee members also exerts a positive impact on the quality of reported earnings, highlighting the fact that audit committee members with an equity stake in their companies are considered more effective in their oversight of the financial reporting process. On the other hand, this study finds evidence that the busyness of audit committee members (busyness defined in terms of the holding of board seats in other companies) has a significant negative impact on the quality of reported earnings. The composite variables (i.e. ACE1, ACE2, ACE3 and ACE4) representing those companies that satisfy all aspects of current best practice in terms of audit committee composition and operation, has a positive impact on the quality of reported earnings. This study covers the period 2007 to 2010 and therefore offers a contemporary analysis of the influence of audit committee characteristics on financial reporting quality. The study is very comprehensive in its scope not only in the selection of audit committee characteristics and methods employed to quantify these characteristics, but also in the use of various proxies developed to capture the true essence of financial reporting quality. The choice of multiple measurement methods both for the dependent and independent variables facilitates a much richer investigation into the relationship between governance and financial reporting quality variables. Therefore this study makes a major contribution to our understanding of the association between the various audit committee characteristics and financial reporting quality in the wake of recently introduced regulatory recommendations. These findings will also have policy implications as regulators around the world continue to define and refine the desired characteristics and behaviour of audit committees. Therefore, the findings of this study will ensure future policy changes regarding audit committees are adequately informed.

Audit Committees and Financial Reporting Quality

Audit Committees and Financial Reporting Quality PDF Author: Chaudhry Ghafran
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This thesis examines the impact of audit committee characteristics on financial reporting quality in the context of a large sample of UK companies over the period 2007-2010. The notion of financial reporting quality is assessed by looking at the audit quality and earnings quality of the firms. This study utilises the audit fee and non-audit fee ratio as its proxies for audit quality and accruals based earnings management models as its proxies for earnings quality. The findings from the multivariate analysis show that audit committee meetings and financial expertise exert a significant positive impact on audit fees. Investigating expertise further, this study finds no support for the notion that accounting expertise influences audit fees, however a significant positive influence on audit fees is recorded for the non-accounting financial expertise. However, the holding of additional directorships has a significant negative impact on audit fees. This study also finds that audit committee members' financial expertise has a negative and significant impact on non-audit fee ratio suggesting a strong support of members with financial expertise on issues relating to auditor independence. The study also documents that audit committee members serving longer on the boards do not prefer to purchase high amount of non-audit services from the incumbent auditor. This study also records a significant positive impact of the holding of additional directorships on the provision of non-audit fee ratio, thus signifying a profound support for the busyness hypothesis which argues that overstretched directors are not very good monitors of financial reporting quality. Furthermore, this study finds broadly consistent evidence that audit committees meeting three or more times per year and fully independent audit committees exert a significant positive impact on the quality of reported earnings. This study also finds some evidence (depending on the earnings model used) that the level of ownership of audit committee members also exerts a positive impact on the quality of reported earnings, highlighting the fact that audit committee members with an equity stake in their companies are considered more effective in their oversight of the financial reporting process. On the other hand, this study finds evidence that the busyness of audit committee members (busyness defined in terms of the holding of board seats in other companies) has a significant negative impact on the quality of reported earnings. The composite variables (i.e. ACE1, ACE2, ACE3 and ACE4) representing those companies that satisfy all aspects of current best practice in terms of audit committee composition and operation, has a positive impact on the quality of reported earnings. This study covers the period 2007 to 2010 and therefore offers a contemporary analysis of the influence of audit committee characteristics on financial reporting quality. The study is very comprehensive in its scope not only in the selection of audit committee characteristics and methods employed to quantify these characteristics, but also in the use of various proxies developed to capture the true essence of financial reporting quality. The choice of multiple measurement methods both for the dependent and independent variables facilitates a much richer investigation into the relationship between governance and financial reporting quality variables. Therefore this study makes a major contribution to our understanding of the association between the various audit committee characteristics and financial reporting quality in the wake of recently introduced regulatory recommendations. These findings will also have policy implications as regulators around the world continue to define and refine the desired characteristics and behaviour of audit committees. Therefore, the findings of this study will ensure future policy changes regarding audit committees are adequately informed.

Audit Committees

Audit Committees PDF Author: Frank M. Burke
Publisher: CCH
ISBN: 9780808091646
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 468

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Book Description


Audit Committee Characteristics and the Perceived Quality of Financial Reporting

Audit Committee Characteristics and the Perceived Quality of Financial Reporting PDF Author: Andrew J. Felo
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In this paper, we empirically examine the relationship between two audit committee characteristics - the composition (expertise and independence) and size of the audit committee - and the quality of financial reporting. We show that after controlling for firm size, board composition, a measure of management's commitment to transparency (the existence of an ethics program) and institutional ownership, the percentage of audit committee members having expertise in accounting or financial management is positively related to financial reporting quality. We also find some evidence of a positive relationship between the size of the audit committee and financial reporting quality. However, audit committee independence is not related to financial reporting quality. We also verify that our results are robust across different measures of financial reporting quality. Our results suggest that mandating greater expertise on audit committees rather than simply requiring one expert on the audit committee may be beneficial to investors. In addition, our results also provide weak support for the recommendation of the Blue Ribbon Committee that firms devote significant directorial resources to the audit committee. Given the prior evidence of a negative relationship between financial reporting quality and cost of capital, firms could improve their reporting quality by appropriately structuring their audit committees, thus reducing their cost of capital.

The Effect of Audit Quality on the Relationship Between Audit Committee Effectiveness and Financial Reporting Quality

The Effect of Audit Quality on the Relationship Between Audit Committee Effectiveness and Financial Reporting Quality PDF Author: Johanna Miettinen
Publisher: University of Vaasa
ISBN: 9524762447
Category : Audit committees
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
Tiivistelmä: Tilintarkastuksen laadun vaikutus tarkastusvaliokunnan tehokkuuden ja taloudellisen tiedon laadun väliseen suhteeseen.

Legal Expertise on Corporate Audit Committees and Financial Reporting Quality

Legal Expertise on Corporate Audit Committees and Financial Reporting Quality PDF Author: Jayanthi Krishnan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Recent trends in corporate board composition indicate an increase in the appointment of directors with legal expertise. Using two financial reporting quality measures, accruals quality and discretionary accruals, we find - for a sample of Russell 1000 firms in 2003 and 2005 - that the presence (and proportion) of directors with legal backgrounds on the audit committee is associated with higher financial reporting quality. These results obtain after controlling for accounting expertise on audit committees. Also, supplementary tests indicate a positive association between changes in legal expertise and changes in financial reporting quality, suggesting that legal expertise serves as a monitor rather than as a signal of financial reporting quality. Further, the two forms of expertise interact - i.e., the presence of directors with both forms of expertise enhances financial reporting quality, beyond the contribution of the individual forms of expertise. Additional tests suggest that the positive effects of legal expertise are greater in the post-SOX period compared with a pre-SOX year.

Reaching Key Financial Reporting Decisions

Reaching Key Financial Reporting Decisions PDF Author: Stella Fearnley
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119973759
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 471

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Book Description
The regulatory framework for financial reporting, auditing and governance has changed radically in recent years, as a result of problems identified from the Enron scandal and more recently from the drive to implement global standards. In a key regulatory change, a company audit committee is now expected to play a significant role in agreeing the contents of the financial statements and overseeing the activities of the auditors. Finance Directors, Audit Committee Chairs and Audit Engagement Partners are required to discuss and negotiate financial reporting and auditing issues, a significant process leading to the agreement of the published numbers and disclosures, and to the issuing of the auditor's report which accompanies them, but which is entirely unobservable by third parties. Reaching Key Financial Reporting Decisions: How Directors and Auditors Interact is a fascinating, behind-the-scenes examination of this closed process. The authors draw on the results of face to face interviews, and an extensive survey of finance directors, audit committee chairs and audit partners, and present nine company case studies highlighting the process of discussion and negotiation and the methods by which the agreed financial reporting outcome was reached. Detailed analysis of the case studies: Allows those involved in the process to benchmark their behaviours against those of others Enables a comparison between the previous and current regulatory environments to see what has changed, and sheds light on the sorts of behaviours the current regulatory framework encourages Evaluates the effectiveness of the changed regulatory regime, providing evidence relevant to current policy debates concerning the value of audit, IFRS and the relative merit of rules-based versus principles-based accounting standards in relation to professional judgement and compliance The unprecedented access and unique insights offered by this book make it invaluable for audit firm staff and partners, audit committee chairs and company directors involved in agreeing the published financial statements, as well as those who have an interest in the financial statements, but do not have access to the negotiation process.

Three Essays on Audit Committees and Financial Reporting Quality

Three Essays on Audit Committees and Financial Reporting Quality PDF Author: John Lewis Abernathy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electronic dissertations
Languages : en
Pages : 141

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Book Description
This dissertation investigates the relationship between audit committee characteristics and financial reporting quality. The dissertation is organized into three essays that examine this topic. The first two essays examine audit committee characteristics and their association with various measures of financial reporting quality. Essay Three summarizes relevant literature regarding conservatism, a measure of financial reporting quality. In Essay One, I examine whether adding board members with accounting financial expertise to the audit committee is associated with an increase in a firm's accounting conservatism. The results of this study provide evidence that the addition of accounting expertise is positively associated with higher conservatism as measured by the Penman and Zhang (2000) C-Score measure of conservatism, but only for firms with a strong governance structure. For firms with weak governance, the addition of accounting expertise to the audit committee is associated with higher levels of conservatism as measured by the Givoly and Hayn (2000) negative accruals measure of conservatism. However, the addition of accounting financial expertise is not associated with higher levels of conservatism as measured by the Beaver and Ryan (2000) book-to market measure. Sensitivity analysis suggests that the addition of accounting financial expertise is associated with higher conditional conservatism as measured by the Basu (1997) asymmetric loss recognition measure. In Essay Two, I investigate the association between analyst earnings forecast properties and the presence of accounting financial expertise on audit committees. The results indicate that the presence of accounting financial expertise is associated with significantly higher forecast accuracy and significantly lower forecast dispersion. Additionally, I find that the non-accounting financial expertise is significantly associated with higher analyst forecast accuracy and lower forecast dispersion, but nonfinacial expertise is not. Essay Three summarizes relevant literature regarding conservatism, a measure of financial reporting quality.

Audit Committee Essentials

Audit Committee Essentials PDF Author: Curtis C. Verschoor
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470337079
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Praise for Audit Committee Essentials "Audit Committee Essentials is an excellent and comprehensive resource, documented with key references and illustrated with real-life company examples for all types of commercial and nonprofit enterprises. Dr. Verschoor brings into focus the intertwined impact of risk management, internal controls, and ethics on oversight responsibilities for both the audit committee and the entire board of directors. From my personal perspective as an audit committee member and as a director of both profit and nonprofit entities, this book should be required reading for corporate management, boards of directors, and their committees." --George K. Gill, Chairman and CEO of PetAg, Inc.; Director and member of the Investment and Audit Committees of the United Methodist Foundation of Northern Illinois "Maintaining the highest ethical standards is critical to the success of not-for-profits in today's world. Dr. Verschoor's book provides a practical, highly prescriptive approach to ensuring that governance processes meet the highest expectations of managers, employees, volunteers, contributors, and other stakeholders. I am very impressed with the readability of the book. It definitely raises one's awareness of the need for a thought-out plan that ensures strong financial and ethical credibility." --John S. Maxson, President and CEO Greater North Michigan Avenue Association, Chicago, Illinois A concise and readable account of the audit committee's roles and responsibilities The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has changed the way all corporations now operate, regardless of size. In Audit Committee Essentials, goverance expert Curtis Verschoor explains with great detail and razor-sharp precision why internal control is so critical, emphasizing financial literacy, a requirement under Sarbanes-Oxley, as well as oversight of the financial reporting process and related controls, ethics and the internal and independent audits. Written for seasoned professionals as well as newly assigned board members, Audit Committee Essentials is a vital tool in order to stay abreast of the rapidly changing governance requirements and responsibilities of audit committees.

Audit Committee Accounting Expertise and Financial Reporting Quality

Audit Committee Accounting Expertise and Financial Reporting Quality PDF Author: Vic Naiker
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Audit committees
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description


The Audit Committee Handbook

The Audit Committee Handbook PDF Author: Louis Braiotta, Jr.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470616075
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 415

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Book Description
The Audit Committee Handbook, Fifth Edition The Audit Committee Handbook, Fifth Edition guides you to: Understand the role and responsibilities of the audit committee with a general update and reality check on auditing cycle activities Identify the developments that impact audit committee practices and the most current techniques and strategies for committee meetings Develop a repertoire of effective strategies to help the board of directors discharge its fiduciary responsibility to shareholders Prepare a periodic assessment of professional development activities and an informed review of both audit processes and financial reporting processes A must-have for all audit committee members, board directors, corporate secretaries, CEOs, CFOs, and auditors involved in the accounting practices of their firms, The Audit Committee Handbook, Fifth Edition is the most authoritative work on audit committees in the marketplace.