The Role of Audit Committee Financial Expertise on the Managerial Short-Termism

Audit Committee is a key element of corporate governance. The knowledge and understanding of experienced Audit Committee members increase the Company's financial reporting and auditing value. The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of audit committee financial expertise on managerial short-termism in Tehran Stock Exchange listed companies. To measure managerial short-termism, we used three criteria: discretionary accruals and the actual items (through manipulation of sales and a reduction in discretionary spending). Tehran stock exchange listed firms constitute statistical population of the research. The sample consists of companies that had been listed on Tehran Stock Exchange before 2012 and have audit committee in the years 2013 to 2016. Financial expertise of audit committee members had no significant effect on earnings management on the basis of accruals. The investigation of the effect of audit committee financial expertise on real earnings management revealed that audit committee financial expertise has a negative effect on the real earnings management through manipulation the sales and reducing discretionary spending. These findings are useful for policy makers to formulate useful obligations regarding the Charter of the Audit Committee and the necessity of applying the principles of corporate governance and preparing voluntary corporate governance report.