Audit Partners Gender, Auditor Quality and Clients Value Relevance

Several corporate scandals around the world have aggravated the investors' need for reliable and relevant accounting information. In fact, the study is inspired by prior research which suggests women audit partner or auditor possess a higher level of preparation, risk aversion and ethical behaviour in audit process. Thus, we investigated the possible effect of women audit partner on the client value relevance of accounting information on 2,478 firm-year observations from year 2012 to 2014 for Malaysian listed firms. This article uses time series cross-sectional ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions upon a large sample of the Malaysian listed firms. Basically, the regression results indicate that the signing women audit partner from Big-4 audit firms improves the reliability and value relevance of earnings. Furthermore, our additional analysis shows that firms that engaged the women audit partner from Big-4 audit firms report high relevant equity book values. This study provides a valuable contribution on the positive effect of signing women audit partner from Big-4 audit firms on client value relevance of accounting information to researchers, regulators, investors and all other interested parties in financial information.