Business Commons^™

The Triangular Relationship Between Audit Committee Characteristics, Audit Input And Financial Reporting Quality, Jae Bum Kim, Benjamin Segal, Dan Segal, Yoonseok Zang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Using the reforms to audit committees mandated by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the difference-in-difference approach, we examine the impact of changes in audit committee attributes (financial expertise, size and independence) on the corporate commitment to audit assurance and on the likelihood of financial statement restatements. Firms that were directly affected by the reforms experienced a greater improvement in audit inputs (measured by audit fees and the appointment of an industry specialist auditor) and a larger decline in financial statements restatements relative to firms that had already been compliant. Importantly, we find that the decline in restatements is not …