Corporate Governance and Accounting Conservatism: Evidence from French CAC 40 Listed Companies

This paper aims to study how board diversity impacts the accounting conservatism. It uses a sample of 34 companies listed on the CAC 40 during the 2012-2021period. Using Givoly and Hayn (2000) accrual-based measure of accounting conservatism, we found that directors' demographic characteristics (age, gender, nationality) positively affect the accounting conservatism. The findings may be of interest to regulators, corporate managers, and board of directors interested in enhancing disclosure quality. As the study links board demographic attributes to accounting conservatism, policies can be developed in order to improve the configuration of boards and thus the credibility of financial statements. This study claims originality insofar as it focuses on the effect of directors' demographic diversity on accounting conservatism practices. Unlike earlier studies that examined board of directors' structure from the corporate governance perspective, our study investigates how precisely demographic attributes of board directors affect the accounting conservatism.