The moderating role of the audit committee on the relationship between financial statement comparability and stock price crash risk

The primary objective of this study is to assess the impact of financial reporting comparability on stock price crash risk and to examine the moderating role of audit committee characteristics, using a panel of 252 firm-year observations from non-financial firms. The study employs robust empirical techniques including generalized least squares (GLS) regression to address heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation, ensuring the reliability of findings. Two established proxies—negative skewness (NCSKEW) and down-to-up volatility (DUVOL)—are used to measure crash risk. The results provide strong evidence that higher financial reporting comparability significantly reduces crash risk, confirming its role in enhancing transparency and mitigating information asymmetry. Firms with comparable financial statements are less prone to sudden negative price movements, suggesting improved investor confidence and a reduced likelihood of managerial opportunism. Furthermore, audit committee characteristics play a critical moderating role. Specifically, audit committee independence and size are found to strengthen the negative association between comparability and crash risk, while lack of meeting frequency appears less influential. Additionally, the analysis reveals that firm size and affiliation with a Big 4 audit firm have significant effects on crash risk, reinforcing the importance of firm-specific factors in price stability. Conversely, other controls such as leverage, profitability, and growth opportunities do not consistently affect crash risk acros