Gender Attributes of Audit Committee Members and the Quality of Financial Reports

This study aimed at examining the influence of gender attributes of audit committee members on the quality of financial reports in the Jordanian commercial banks. Particularly, the focus is on whether the quality of financial reports is influenced by the existence of female as a member and as a chairperson of audit committee. The quality of financial reports is measured using 9 indicators of voluntary disclosure extracted from the annual reports. Data is collected from 13 commercial banks listed on the Amman Stock Exchange during the period (2013-2017) and analyzed using the statistical program STATA. Multiple regression is employed to test the hypotheses and elicit the results. The results of the study indicate that the quality of financial reports is positively influenced by the existence of female as a member of audit committee. Moreover, there is a negative relationship between the presences of female as a chairperson of audit committee and the quality of financial reports. This study contributes to the extant literature on the interaction between gender attributes and financial reports quality by providing empirical evidence from commercial banks in Jordan.