Investigating the effect of female financial managers on the restatement of financial statements and audit fees in companies listed on Tehran Stock Exchange

Detailed Abstract
For a long time, regulatory bodies have emphasized the importance of the role of financial managers because they are ultimately responsible for the company's financial strategies. Expert and capable women have been neglected in taking on the role of financial management in organizations. Women play an important role in creating value and increasing the welfare level of the society. Because they are more careful in social relations and pay more attention to the correct performance of assigned duties and following the governing laws; Therefore, their presence at the head of organizations can be useful. Female managers are very useful not only for ethical reasons but also for maintaining good relations with the external environment in order to acquire resources. The presence of female managers is related to the improvement of the company's performance. In addition, the role of women in improving the quality of financial reports, internal controls and audit quality has been proven.
The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of the gender of financial managers, with an emphasis on female financial managers, on the restatement of financial statements and audit fees in Iranian companies in order to clarify the role of women in assuming managerial responsibilities in organizations. According to the investigations, no research has been done in this regard in the companies accepted in Tehran Stock Exchange. Most of the researches conducted in the field of gender of financial managers have been conducted in developed countries, and their results cannot be generalized to developing countries such as Iran due to differences in cultural characteristics and corporate governance.
Restatement of financial statements can be considered as an important event that shows the low quality of financial statements of the past periods. Considering the negative consequences of restatement, it is necessary to identify the factors that affect the restatement of financial statements. The subject of audit fees and the factors affecting it have been significantly studied by researchers around the world. One of the reasons for investigating this issue is the direct effect of audit fees on audit quality. The demographic profile of senior executive managers has a significant impact on organizational performance and outputs. According to the behavioral characteristics of women and the available empirical evidence, it can be expected that the quality of financial reporting and, as a result, the reduction in mistakes and restatement of financial presentations in companies with female financial managers are more than other companies. Because higher conservatism, better monitoring and effective internal controls created by female managers are related to improved reporting and reduced financial restatements.
The present research is practical and it is classified as descriptive-correlational research. The statistical sample includes 154 firms of Tehran Stock Exchange during the years 2012 to 2019. Since some companies had not formed an audit committee (as a control variable) in some years, the number of observations to test the first hypothesis; reached 1065 firm-year observations. In addition, since the disclosure of audit fee information in companies is voluntary and relatively many companies do not disclose audit fee information, therefore, the number of observations to test the second hypothesis; Reached 734 firm-year observations.
The results of the first hypothesis showed that there is a negative and significant relationship between the gender of financial managers and renewal of financial presentations. Therefore, restatement of financial statements in companies with female financial managers is less than in companies with male financial managers. By examining the results of the second hypothesis test, it was also determined that there is a positive and significant relationship between the gender of financial managers and audit fees. That is, companies with female financial managers pay higher audit fees. In general, the findings indicate that female financial managers, due to their inherent characteristics such as risk aversion and conservatism, increase the quality of financial reporting and want higher quality audits from independent auditors. The findings of this research can help legislators and drafters of regulations to better understand the effects of gender diversity in improving corporate governance and drafting or recommending regulations in this field.