Political connections, board ethnicity and value relevance in Mauritius

Purpose - The paper aims to investigate the impact of political connections and board ethnicity on the value relevance of earnings and book value in Mauritius. Design/methodology/approach - This study is based on a sample of 541 Mauritian listed firm-year observations for 2001-2016. Financial and b...

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Main Authors: Mustun, Tasneem, Abdul Wahab, Effiezal
Format: Journal Article
Published: Emerald 2023
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/92062
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author Mustun, Tasneem
Abdul Wahab, Effiezal
author_facet Mustun, Tasneem
Abdul Wahab, Effiezal
author_sort Mustun, Tasneem
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Purpose - The paper aims to investigate the impact of political connections and board ethnicity on the value relevance of earnings and book value in Mauritius. Design/methodology/approach - This study is based on a sample of 541 Mauritian listed firm-year observations for 2001-2016. Financial and board diversity data have been collected using the listed firms' annual reports and from reports published by the Stock Exchange of Mauritius. Political connection data was derived from the directory of Chief of State and Cabinet members. The research hypotheses were empirically tested using a modified Ohlson (1995) price model. Findings - This study shows that political connections negatively impact the value relevance of earnings and book value. We find that firms with Franco-Mauritian directors will constrain political connections' negative impact. We find contrasting results for Indo-Mauritian directors since they form an integral part of the government in Mauritius. Originality - This study contributes to the scarce accounting literature in Mauritius. Firstly, no study has investigated the relationship between the value relevance of accounting information and political connections in Mauritius. Secondly, Mauritius’ capital market is dominated by a non-indigenous ethnic group, Franco-Mauritians, who remains the economic elite. Hence, Mauritius presents an opportunity to bring forth another important aspect in the capital market and corporate governance; diversity on the board of directors. Therefore, the study extends to the political connections and board diversity literature.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-920622023-06-12T07:10:36Z Political connections, board ethnicity and value relevance in Mauritius Mustun, Tasneem Abdul Wahab, Effiezal Purpose - The paper aims to investigate the impact of political connections and board ethnicity on the value relevance of earnings and book value in Mauritius. Design/methodology/approach - This study is based on a sample of 541 Mauritian listed firm-year observations for 2001-2016. Financial and board diversity data have been collected using the listed firms' annual reports and from reports published by the Stock Exchange of Mauritius. Political connection data was derived from the directory of Chief of State and Cabinet members. The research hypotheses were empirically tested using a modified Ohlson (1995) price model. Findings - This study shows that political connections negatively impact the value relevance of earnings and book value. We find that firms with Franco-Mauritian directors will constrain political connections' negative impact. We find contrasting results for Indo-Mauritian directors since they form an integral part of the government in Mauritius. Originality - This study contributes to the scarce accounting literature in Mauritius. Firstly, no study has investigated the relationship between the value relevance of accounting information and political connections in Mauritius. Secondly, Mauritius’ capital market is dominated by a non-indigenous ethnic group, Franco-Mauritians, who remains the economic elite. Hence, Mauritius presents an opportunity to bring forth another important aspect in the capital market and corporate governance; diversity on the board of directors. Therefore, the study extends to the political connections and board diversity literature. 2023 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/92062 10.1108/ARA-10-2022-0238 Emerald fulltext
spellingShingle Mustun, Tasneem
Abdul Wahab, Effiezal
Political connections, board ethnicity and value relevance in Mauritius
title Political connections, board ethnicity and value relevance in Mauritius
title_full Political connections, board ethnicity and value relevance in Mauritius
title_fullStr Political connections, board ethnicity and value relevance in Mauritius
title_full_unstemmed Political connections, board ethnicity and value relevance in Mauritius
title_short Political connections, board ethnicity and value relevance in Mauritius
title_sort political connections, board ethnicity and value relevance in mauritius
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/92062