审计委员会性别多元化与会计稳健性——来自中国上市公司的经验证据

Gender diversity of audit committees and accounting conservatism:Evidence from Chinese listed companies

本文以2011年~2013年我国A股上市公司的数据为研究样本,以审计委员会中女性董事比率、女性董事规模和至少存在一名女性董事度量审计委员会性别多元化,考察了审计委员会性别多元化对会计稳健性的影响。研究发现,审计委员会性别多元化与会计稳健性之间呈正相关关系;进一步研究发现,审计委员会中女性董事在管理者权力较弱时能够充分发挥监督作用,促进会计稳健性水平的提高,而在管理者权力较强时,其对会计稳健性的积极作用受到限制。研究有助于深化对女性董事在公司治理中作用的理论认知,同时,将对进一步完善我国审计委员会制度提供了一定的经验证据。

This paper examines the effect of gender diversity of audit committees on accounting conservatism using a sample of China＇s A share listed companies during the period 2011 to 2013. We use the percent of female audit committee members, the number of female audit committee members and the existence of at least one female audit committee member to measure gen- der diversity of the audit committee. The results show that there is a significantly positive association between gender diversity of audit committees and accounting conservatism. Further analysis shows that this positive association is more significant in companies with weak management control than in companies with strong management control. Our study helps to deepen the theoretical cognition of female directors＇ function in corporate governance. Meanwhile this study provides some empirical evi- dence for further improving the audit committee system in China.