The Role of Auditor Features in Improving Earnings Quality

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of auditor features (as an external corporate governance mechanism) on the quality of reported earnings of Iranian firms. I used a sample comprised of 212 publicly traded firms listed in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) during 1386-91. Auditor features considered are auditor turnover، auditor size، auditor specialist in industry، existence of audit committee and internal control. In contrast to prior literature، auditor features are defined as a multidimensional variable. Further، the present study measures the quality of earnings in seven ways. After controlling for firm size، leverage، operating cash flows، and growth opportunities، empirical tests demonstrate that some of earnings quality measures have significant relationship with auditor features. Therefore، auditor features index is 1) negatively related to the accruals quality، earnings persistence، earnings management and conservatism، 2) positively related to the earnings timeliness، and 3) not related to the earnings predictability and value relevance. Furthermore، the results suggest that disaggregating auditor features index into more components cause to variability in explanatory power of the models.