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Credit rating agency response to appointment of female audit partners: Evidence from the UK

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  • Owusu, Andrews
  • Zalata, Alaa Mansour

Abstract

We study the impact of appointing women as audit partners from a credit rating agency perspective. We investigate whether credit rating agencies value the appointment of women to audit partner positions differently than when men are appointed. This study uses a United Kingdom (UK) balanced panel data of 2472 firm-year observations of public quoted companies from 2009 to 2016 and analyzes how credit rating agencies respond to such appointments. We find a more positive credit score reaction after appointment of a female audit partner than that following the appointment of a male audit partner. This finding suggests that, from a credit rating agency perspective, there seems to be a business case for a particular gender when it comes to appointing audit partners.

Suggested Citation

  • Owusu, Andrews & Zalata, Alaa Mansour, 2023. "Credit rating agency response to appointment of female audit partners: Evidence from the UK," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jiaata:v:50:y:2023:i:c:s1061951823000046
    DOI: 10.1016/j.intaccaudtax.2023.100525
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