Earnings conservatism and audit committee financial expertise

This study examines the association between earnings conservatism and four different measures of audit committee financial expertise. Statistical tests are based on 494 firm-year observations drawn from Australian publicly listed firms between January 1 2004 and December 31 2008. Consistent with exp...

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Main Authors: Sultana, Nigar, Van der Zahn, J-L.W.
Other Authors: Steven Cahan
Format: Conference Paper
Published: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Asia 2012
Online Access:http://afaanz.org/openconf/2012/openconf.php
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/27298
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author Sultana, Nigar
Van der Zahn, J-L.W.
author2 Steven Cahan
author_facet Steven Cahan
Sultana, Nigar
Van der Zahn, J-L.W.
author_sort Sultana, Nigar
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This study examines the association between earnings conservatism and four different measures of audit committee financial expertise. Statistical tests are based on 494 firm-year observations drawn from Australian publicly listed firms between January 1 2004 and December 31 2008. Consistent with expectations, tests find a statistically significant association between earnings conservatism and a) overall financial expertise, b) accounting financial expertise and c) independent financial expertise. However, only a weak association is found between earnings conservatism and audit committee non-accounting financial expertise. Overall, results infer that audit committee financial expertise is a key determinant of the asymmetrical timeliness of loss recognition (both via stock returns and accruals). Findings provide valuable insights and greater understanding to various special interest groups (e.g., corporate governance reformists, regulators, scholars), of the individual dynamics between audit committee financial expertise and earnings conservatism contributing, therefore, to the literature on the importance of audit committee financial expertise in improving financial reporting quality.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-272982017-01-30T12:58:09Z Earnings conservatism and audit committee financial expertise Sultana, Nigar Van der Zahn, J-L.W. Steven Cahan This study examines the association between earnings conservatism and four different measures of audit committee financial expertise. Statistical tests are based on 494 firm-year observations drawn from Australian publicly listed firms between January 1 2004 and December 31 2008. Consistent with expectations, tests find a statistically significant association between earnings conservatism and a) overall financial expertise, b) accounting financial expertise and c) independent financial expertise. However, only a weak association is found between earnings conservatism and audit committee non-accounting financial expertise. Overall, results infer that audit committee financial expertise is a key determinant of the asymmetrical timeliness of loss recognition (both via stock returns and accruals). Findings provide valuable insights and greater understanding to various special interest groups (e.g., corporate governance reformists, regulators, scholars), of the individual dynamics between audit committee financial expertise and earnings conservatism contributing, therefore, to the literature on the importance of audit committee financial expertise in improving financial reporting quality. 2012 Conference Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/27298 http://afaanz.org/openconf/2012/openconf.php Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Asia restricted
spellingShingle Sultana, Nigar
Van der Zahn, J-L.W.
Earnings conservatism and audit committee financial expertise
title Earnings conservatism and audit committee financial expertise
title_full Earnings conservatism and audit committee financial expertise
title_fullStr Earnings conservatism and audit committee financial expertise
title_full_unstemmed Earnings conservatism and audit committee financial expertise
title_short Earnings conservatism and audit committee financial expertise
title_sort earnings conservatism and audit committee financial expertise
url http://afaanz.org/openconf/2012/openconf.php
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/27298