L'influence des auditeurs externes et des comités d'audit sur le contenu informatif des manipulations comptables

The Effects of External Auditors and Audit Commitees on the Informativeness of Earnings by Rémi J and Charles Piot Because of the flexibility allowed by accounting standards, accrual-based accounting is subject to managerial discretion. Although one may consider that investors are sophisticated enough to read and understand financial reports, it is difficult to find out whether discretionary accounting accruals are opportunistic, thus foolish and value irrelevant, or whether managerial discretion enhances earnings informativeness by allowing the communication of private information about firm value. If auditing can play an important role in improving the credibility of reported earnings, we argue that the impact of audit quality on the value relevance of accounting numbers is contingent to the accounting framework used. Using French accounting standards, this paper examines whether various audit quality attributes (auditor reputation, auditor tenure, existence of an independent audit committee) have an impact on the value relevance of discretionary accruals. The sample is composed of 152 firm-year observations from the SBF 120 Index during 1999-2001. In contrast with some US studies, empirical findings document that the value relevance of discretionary accruals is lower if the firm appoints a Big N auditor, or if an audit committee in majority independent exists. However, the only existence of an audit committee, regardless of its independence, has no effects on the value relevance of discretionary accruals, nor does long auditor tenure. Accruals, value relevance, audit quality, association study