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Overlapping Membership on Audit and Compensation Committees and Financial Reporting Quality

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  • Ahsan Habib
  • Md. Borhan Uddin Bhuiyan

Abstract

type="main"> This paper examines whether the audit committee members of a board improve financial reporting quality if they are also on their organisation's compensation committee. Audit committees are responsible for overseeing the financial reporting process of organisations and have been urged to broaden their understanding of business risk and of the incentives provided by their firms’ executive compensation structures. Acknowledging the interrelationships among executive compensation, risk-taking and financial reporting quality, members of audit and compensation committees have been advocating more information sharing between the two committees. Using archival data from a sample of Australian Stock Exchange listed companies, and discretionary accruals as a proxy for financial reporting quality, this study finds that firms with overlapping committees have better quality financial reporting than those without such an overlap. Our evidence for this is stronger in cases where managers tend to manage earnings upwards in order to meet or beat earnings benchmarks. We also find that the beneficial effect of the existence of overlapping committees is adversely affected by the equity holdings of directors with overlapping memberships.

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  • Ahsan Habib & Md. Borhan Uddin Bhuiyan, 2016. "Overlapping Membership on Audit and Compensation Committees and Financial Reporting Quality," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 26(1), pages 76-90, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ausact:v:26:y:2016:i:1:p:76-90
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/auar.12086
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    3. Ding, Bin Yan & Wei, Feng, 2023. "Overlapping membership between risk management committee and audit committee and bank risk-taking: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    4. Mary Ellen Carter & Luann J. Lynch & Melissa A. Martin, 2022. "Board Committee Overlap and the Use of Earnings in CEO Compensation Contracts," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(8), pages 6268-6297, August.
    5. Wan-Hussin, Wan Nordin & Fitri, Hadiati & Salim, Basariah, 2021. "Audit committee chair overlap, chair expertise, and internal auditing practices: Evidence from Malaysia," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    6. Ayad Ahmed Mohammed Al-Qublani & Hasnah Kamardin & Rohami Shafie, 2020. "Audit Committee Chair Attributes and Audit Report Lag in an Emerging Market," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 11(4), pages 475-492, July.

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