IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/acctfi/v49y2009i2p267-290.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Audit committees and earnings quality

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Baxter
  • Julie Cotter

Abstract

This research investigates whether audit committees are associated with improved earnings quality for a sample of Australian listed companies prior to the introduction of mandatory audit committee requirements in 2003. Two measures of earnings quality are used based on models first developed by Jones (1991) and Dechow and Dichev (2002). Our results indicate that formation of an audit committee reduces intentional earnings management but not accrual estimation errors. We also find differences in the associations between audit committee accounting expertise and the two earnings quality measures. Other audit committee characteristics examined are not significantly related to either earnings quality measure.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Baxter & Julie Cotter, 2009. "Audit committees and earnings quality," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 49(2), pages 267-290, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:49:y:2009:i:2:p:267-290
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-629X.2008.00290.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-629X.2008.00290.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-629X.2008.00290.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Francis, Jennifer & LaFond, Ryan & Olsson, Per & Schipper, Katherine, 2005. "The market pricing of accruals quality," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 295-327, June.
    2. Klein, April, 2002. "Audit committee, board of director characteristics, and earnings management," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 375-400, August.
    3. David F. Larcker & Scott A. Richardson, 2004. "Fees Paid to Audit Firms, Accrual Choices, and Corporate Governance," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(3), pages 625-658, June.
    4. Xie, Biao & Davidson, Wallace III & DaDalt, Peter J., 2003. "Earnings management and corporate governance: the role of the board and the audit committee," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 295-316, June.
    5. Menon, Krishnagopal & Deahl Williams, Joanne, 1994. "The use of audit committees for monitoring," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 121-139.
    6. Guay, WR & Kothari, SP & Watts, RL, 1996. "A market-based evaluation of discretionary accrual models," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34, pages 83-105.
    7. Mark S. Beasley & Steven E. Salterio, 2001. "The Relationship between Board Characteristics and Voluntary Improvements in Audit Committee Composition and Experience," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(4), pages 539-570, December.
    8. Nikos Vafeas, 2005. "Audit Committees, Boards, and the Quality of Reported Earnings," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(4), pages 1093-1122, December.
    9. Ping‐Sheng Koh & Stacie Kelley Laplante & Yen H. Tong, 2007. "Accountability and value enhancement roles of corporate governance," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 47(2), pages 305-333, June.
    10. Jong-Hag Choi & Kyu-An Jeon & Jong-Il Park, 2004. "The role of audit committees in decreasing earnings management: Korean evidence," International Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 1(1), pages 37-60.
    11. Ellen Engel, 2005. "Discussion of Does the Market Value Financial Expertise on Audit Committees of Boards of Directors?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(2), pages 195-204, May.
    12. Davidson, Wallace III & Xie, Biao & Xu, Weihong, 2004. "Market reaction to voluntary announcements of audit committee appointments: The effect of financial expertise," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 279-293.
    13. Patricia M. Dechow & Richard G. Sloan & Amy P. Sweeney, 1996. "Causes and Consequences of Earnings Manipulation: An Analysis of Firms Subject to Enforcement Actions by the SEC," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(1), pages 1-36, March.
    14. Jones, Jj, 1991. "Earnings Management During Import Relief Investigations," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 193-228.
    15. Mark L. Defond & Rebecca N. Hann & Xuesong Hu, 2005. "Does the Market Value Financial Expertise on Audit Committees of Boards of Directors?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(2), pages 153-193, May.
    16. Kothari, S.P. & Leone, Andrew J. & Wasley, Charles E., 2005. "Performance matched discretionary accrual measures," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 163-197, February.
    17. Bernard, Victor L. & Skinner, Douglas J., 1996. "What motivates managers' choice of discretionary accruals?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1-3), pages 313-325, October.
    18. Guay, W. & Kothari, S.P. & Watts, R.L., 1996. "A Market-Based Evaluation of Discretionary-Accrual Models," Papers 96-01, Rochester, Business - Financial Research and Policy Studies.
    19. Ryan Davidson & Jenny Goodwin‐Stewart & Pamela Kent, 2005. "Internal governance structures and earnings management," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 45(2), pages 241-267, July.
    20. Bin N. Srinidhi & Ferdinand A. Gul, 2007. "The Differential Effects of Auditors' Nonaudit and Audit Fees on Accrual Quality," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(2), pages 595-629, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dechow, Patricia & Ge, Weili & Schrand, Catherine, 2010. "Understanding earnings quality: A review of the proxies, their determinants and their consequences," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 344-401, December.
    2. DeFond, Mark & Zhang, Jieying, 2014. "A review of archival auditing research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 275-326.
    3. Hsu, Audrey Wen-hsin & Liu, Sophia Hsin-Tsai, 2016. "Organizational structure, agency costs, and accrual quality," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 35-60.
    4. Chad R. Larson & Richard Sloan & Jenny Zha Giedt, 2018. "Defining, measuring, and modeling accruals: a guide for researchers," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 827-871, September.
    5. Alzoubi, Ebraheem Saleem Salem, 2018. "Audit quality, debt financing, and earnings management: Evidence from Jordan," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 69-84.
    6. Tsipouridou, Maria & Spathis, Charalambos, 2012. "Earnings management and the role of auditors in an unusual IFRS context: The case of Greece," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 62-78.
    7. Nguyet T. M. Nguyen & Abdullah Iqbal & Radha K. Shiwakoti, 2022. "The context of earnings management and its ability to predict future stock returns," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 123-169, July.
    8. Daniela Hohenfels & Reiner Quick, 2020. "Non-audit services and audit quality: evidence from Germany," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 14(5), pages 959-1007, October.
    9. Wael Almaqoushi & Ronan Powell, 2021. "Audit committee quality indices, reporting quality and firm value," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1-2), pages 185-229, January.
    10. Chanchal Chatterjee, 2020. "Board Quality and Earnings Management: Evidence from India," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 21(5), pages 1302-1324, October.
    11. Abdullah Alsaadi, 2021. "Can Inclusion in Religious Index Membership Mitigate Earnings Management?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 169(2), pages 333-354, March.
    12. Mujeeb Saif Mohsen Al-Absy & Ku Nor Izah Ku Ismail & Sitraselvi Chandren, 2018. "Accounting expertise in the audit committee and earnings management," Business and Economic Horizons (BEH), Prague Development Center, vol. 14(3), pages 451-476, June.
    13. Bilal, & Chen, Songsheng & Komal, Bushra, 2018. "Audit committee financial expertise and earnings quality: A meta-analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 253-270.
    14. Yousef Jahmani & Suman Niranjan & Susanne Toney, 2016. "Earnings Management in Recession and Recovery Periods," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 10(2), pages 264-280, May.
    15. Benjamin T. Albersmann & Daniela Hohenfels, 2017. "Audit Committees and Earnings Management – Evidence from the German Two-Tier Board System," Schmalenbach Business Review, Springer;Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft, vol. 18(2), pages 147-178, May.
    16. Masoud Azizkhani & Sarowar Hossain & Mai Nguyen, 2023. "Effects of audit committee chair characteristics on auditor choice, audit fee and audit quality," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(3), pages 3675-3707, September.
    17. Nimisha Kapoor & Sandeep Goel, 2017. "Board Characteristics, Firm Profitability and Earnings Management: Evidence from India," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 27(2), pages 180-194, June.
    18. Dichev, Ilia D. & Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Rajgopal, Shiva, 2013. "Earnings quality: Evidence from the field," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 1-33.
    19. Ghafran, Chaudhry & O'Sullivan, Noel & Yasmin, Sofia, 2022. "When does audit committee busyness influence earnings management in the UK? Evidence on the role of the financial crisis and company size," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    20. C. Piot & L. Kermiche, 2009. "A quoi servent les comités d'audit ? Un regard sur la recherche empirique," Post-Print halshs-00537952, HAL.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:49:y:2009:i:2:p:267-290. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaanzea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.