Effect of Audit Quality on Earnings Management in Insurance Companies in Nigeria

Abstract

The main objective of the study is to determine the effect of audit quality on earnings management in insurance companies in Nigeria with special consideration on accruals and performance measures of earning manipulations using insurance companies in Nigeria. Preliminary analyses were conducted, such as descriptive statistics and correlation matrix. In analyzing the data, the study adopted panel multiple regression to identify the possible effects of audit quality on earnings management of financial institutions in Nigeria We interpreted fixed effect analysis after using Hausman test. The result shows that audit quality had a significant effect on earnings management. We conclude that longer stay of auditors in financial institutions increases accrual and performance manipulation. However, financial institutions audited by the Big 4 auditing firms are associated with less accrual and performance earnings manipulation while financial institutions that have executive and non-executive directors as members of audit committee have greater accrual and performance earnings manipulations. Higher number of financial experts in audit committee increases accrual manipulation while higher number of experts with accounting background in audit committee reduces performance manipulating. Finally, increase in auditors’ fee leads to choices of using accounting methods to manipulate both accrual and performance earnings. Therefore, the study recommends that, financial institutions should have maximum number of years for auditors to stay. They should focus more on increasing the number of experts with accounting background in audit committees. Accounting bodies should regulate auditors’ fee in line with the size of the financial institution. (JEL M42)

Keywords

• audit fees
• audit committee independence
• audit firm size
• audit quality
• earnings management
• financial literacy of audit committee members
• length of audit tenure