Relationship between audit committee characterizes and the accounting quality

Abstract

In this paper, I empirically examine the relationship between the three audit committee characterizes - the size of the audit committee, the percentage of the expertise with CPA backgrounds, the percentage of the independent directors - and the accounting quality. After controlling the firm’s size and the firm’s return on assets rate, I found that the percentage of the expertise with CPA backgrounds and the size of the audit committee have a significant and positive relationship with the accounting quality, and that the percentage of the expertise with CPA backgrounds have more significant influence on accounting quality than the audit committee size. However, there is no relationship between the percentage of the independent directors and the accounting quality. In conclusion, my results suggest that to improve accounting quality, firms should increase the percentage of expertise with CPA backgrounds in their audit committees as well as enlarge their audit committee size.