Corporate Governance Attributes and Accounting Conservatism: Evidence from China

Abstract

The paper explores the association between corporate governance attributes and the extent of accounting conservatism apparent in Chinese listed companies’ financial reporting. The findings demonstrate that significant positive association exists between board independence, board size and accounting conservatism in Chinese information technology companies. Conversely, CEO duality, management shareholding and the shareholding ratio of the largest shareholder significantly negatively correlated with accounting conservatism. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is one of the first empirical papers revealing the evidence on the relationship between corporate governance attributes and accounting conservatism in China. Overall, the author’s findings match up with the assertion that accounting conservatism assists directors in reducing agency costs of firms.

Keywords

• china
• corporate governance
• accounting conservatism
• board structure
• ownership structure