Female Audit Partners and Extended Audit Reporting: UK Evidence

This study investigates whether audit partner gender is associated with the extent of auditor disclosure and the communication style regarding risks of material misstatements that are classified as key audit matters (KAMs). Using a sample of UK firms during the 2013–2017 period, our results suggest that female audit partners are more likely than male audit partners to disclose more KAMs with more details after controlling for both client and audit firm attributes. Furthermore, female audit partners are found to use a less optimistic tone and provide less readable audit reports, compared to their male counterparts, suggesting that behavioural variances between female and male audit partners may have significant implications on their writing style. Therefore, this study offers new insights on the role of audit partner gender in extended audit reporting. Our findings have important implications for audit firms, investors, policymakers and governments in relation to the development, implementation and enforcement of gender diversity

Earnings management: Origins

This chapter seeks to describe the field of inquiry by defining the concepts of earnings quality, earnings management, fraud, and earnings manipulation. It presents the earnings management phenomenon, specifically, from whence it comes. It reviews the mainstream studies, and focuses on two types of earnings management: accruals earnings management and real activities earnings management. In addition, studies related to fraudulent financial reporting (or non-generally accepted accounting principles, i.e. non-GAAP earnings management) will be presented and discussed as well. Furthermore, this chapter presents studies on managerial incentives for earnings management. The most important incentives (or causes) for managing earnings are discussed and the contradictory results provided by some of them highlighted. Finally, a few offsetting causes that may interfere with these main incentives for managing earnings are presented