We apply voting theory to the context of audit committees and examine how the even– odd nature of audit committees is related to earnings quality. We hypothesize that an audit committee with an odd number of directors can improve the committee’s voting efficiency by better aggregating directors’ information and thus enhance the quality of committee decisions, as compared with an audit committee...

Since 1999, regulators have attempted to improve the monitoring of financial reporting by exerting significant pressure on firms to appoint financial experts to their audit committees. Yet, many firms have been reluctant to do so, which has made these firms more prone to financial reporting problems. We examine appointments of financial experts to the audit committees of S&P 1500 firms during t...

Mandatory auditor rotation is designed to increase auditor independence. However, there already exist substantial regulations that ensure auditor independence, such as mandatory audit partner rotation, requiring auditor selection and supervision by audit committees consisting of independent directors, and limitations on the non-audit fees audit firms receive from the companies they audit. Many ...

The Government's proposals for the reform of the National Health Service' have met with a mixed response. Amidst the controversy one item has received widespread support. Increasingly it is recognized that medical audit is an essential component of high quality clinical practice, and the United Kingdom can no longer lag behind countries such as the United States, Australia and the Netherlands2 ...