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Political connections, related party transactions, and auditor choice: Evidence from Indonesia

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  • Habib, Ahsan
  • Muhammadi, Abdul Haris
  • Jiang, Haiyan

Abstract

This paper investigates how political connections in concert with related party transactions (RPTs) determine auditor choice in Indonesia. Our study is motivated by conflicting findings in the literature on whether politically connected firms appoint reputable auditors (Big 4 auditors). On one hand, politically connected firms are less likely to appoint Big 4 auditors if they wish to cover up RPT-related tunneling activities by providing financial statements that fail to reflect their true economic performance. On the other hand, politically connected insiders who refrain from self-dealing would prefer higher-quality financial reporting and, hence, appoint Big 4 auditors. Using data from Indonesia, we find support for the former. By documenting the role of RPTs as a motivating factor for politically connected firms to choose non-Big 4 auditors, we enrich the political connection and auditor choice literature.

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  • Habib, Ahsan & Muhammadi, Abdul Haris & Jiang, Haiyan, 2017. "Political connections, related party transactions, and auditor choice: Evidence from Indonesia," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 1-19.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jocaae:v:13:y:2017:i:1:p:1-19
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcae.2017.01.004
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    Cited by:

    1. Habib, Ahsan & Ranasinghe, Dinithi & Muhammadi, Abdul Haris & Islam, Ainul, 2018. "Political connections, financial reporting and auditing: Survey of the empirical literature," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 37-51.
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    5. Haiyan Jiang & Gary Tian & Donghua Zhou, 2021. "The influence of the deregulation of short‐selling on related‐party transactions: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(5-6), pages 1022-1056, May.
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    7. Giovanna Gavana & Pietro Gottardo & Anna Maria Moisello, 2022. "Related Party Transactions and Earnings Management: The Moderating Effect of ESG Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-21, May.
    8. Susan Jepkorir Mursoi & Willy Muturi & James Ndegwa, 2021. "Related party transactions and financial distress of Savings and Credit Cooperative Organizations (SACCOs) in Kenya," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 10(1), pages 131-138, January.
    9. Bansal, Shashank & Singh, Harminder, 2023. "Does market competition foster related party transactions? Evidence from emerging market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    10. Mohamed Khalil & Sandy Harianto & Yilmaz Guney, 2022. "Do political connections reduce earnings management?," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 273-310, July.
    11. Edy Suprianto & Doddy Setiawan, 2018. "Impact of family control on the relationship between earning management and future performance in Indonesia," Business and Economic Horizons (BEH), Prague Development Center, vol. 14(2), pages 342-354, April.
    12. Abbasi, Kaleemullah & Alam, Ashraful & Bhuiyan, Md. Borhan Uddin, 2020. "Audit committees, female directors and the types of female and male financial experts: Further evidence," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 186-197.
    13. Liang, Quanxi & Li, Donghui & Gao, Wenlian, 2020. "Ultimate ownership, crash risk, and split share structure reform in China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    14. Abdul Rasheed P C & T. Mallikarjunappa & K.T. Thomachan, 2019. "Promoter Ownership, Related Party Transactions and Firm Performance: A Study Among Selected Companies in India," FIIB Business Review, , vol. 8(3), pages 205-217, September.
    15. Arifin, Taufiq & Hasan, Iftekhar & Kabir, Rezaul, 2020. "Transactional and relational approaches to political connections and the cost of debt," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    16. Budi Wahyono, 2022. "The value of political connections and Sharia compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 12(1), pages 1-28, March.
    17. Haroon ur Rashid Khan & Waqas Bin Khidmat & Muhammad Danish Habib & Sadia Awan, 2022. "Academic directors in board and corporate expropriation: Evidence from China," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(2), pages 372-397, March.
    18. Aldy Fariz Achsanta & Tastaftiyan Risfandy & Putra Pamungkas & Irwan Trinugroho & Herman Saheruddin, 2021. "Related bank deposits: Good or bad for stability?," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 11(4), pages 735-751, December.
    19. Tariq H. Ismail & Mohamed El-Deeb & Yasser Tawfik Halim, 2022. "Do related party transactions affect the relationship between political connections and firm value? Evidence from Egypt," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-12, December.
    20. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2020. "Related Party Transactions, State Ownership, the Cost of Corporate Debt, and Corporate Tax Avoidance: Evidence from Vietnam," OSF Preprints y5qj3, Center for Open Science.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Political connections; Related party transactions (RPTs); Indonesia; Auditor choice;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G3 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance
    • M0 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - General
    • M4 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting

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