Role of the Audit Committee Chair in the Financial Reporting Process

Authors

Izhar HaqFollow

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Major/Program

Accounting

First Advisor's Name

Kannan Raghunandan

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Co-Chair

Second Advisor's Name

Dasaratha Rama

Second Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Co-Chair

Third Advisor's Name

Abhijit Barua

Third Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Member

Fourth Advisor's Name

Suchismita Mishra

Fourth Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Keywords

Audit, Chair, Committee, Audit Fee, Audit Report Lag, Restatements, Abnormal Accruals

Date of Defense

4-15-2015

Abstract

In my dissertation, I examine the role of the audit committee chair in the financial reporting process and test if the change in audit committee chair is associated with changes in audit fees, audit report lag, and audit quality. Motivation for this dissertation comes from the increased attention paid by legislators and regulators in recent years on the role of the audit committee in the financial reporting process. While prior studies have examined diverse issues related to the composition of the audit committee, no prior study has examined the role of the audit committee chair on the oversight of financial reporting, even though the chair of the committee has significant control over the functioning of the committee.

In the first essay of my dissertation, I show that audit fees are higher in firms that have a change in the audit committee chair. In the second essay, I examine the association between changes in the audit committee chair and audit report lag. In a changes regression, I find that the change in audit committee is associated with higher audit report lag. The third essay examines the association between changes in audit committee chair and two different measures of audit quality: restatements and abnormal accruals. There is no evidence in support of the argument that changes in audit committee chair is associated with higher quality financial reporting. Overall, the results suggest that the change in audit committee chair has an important impact on the financial reporting process of public companies.

Identifier

FIDC000101

Recommended Citation

Haq, Izhar, "Role of the Audit Committee Chair in the Financial Reporting Process" (2015). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2212.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2212