Title: Engagement partner attributes and earnings quality: evidence from Borsa İstanbul

Authors: Murat Ocak; Gökberk Can

Addresses: Department of Business Information Management, Uzunköprü School of Applied Sciences, Trakya University, Edirne, Turkey ' College of Business Administration, American University of the Middle East, Egaila, Kuwait

Abstract: This paper investigates the effects of engagement partners' attributes on earnings quality using 725 firm*year observations between 2008 and 2013 from Borsa İstanbul manufacturing industry firms. We use two indicators of earnings quality to test the effects of gender, educational background, experience and certification from among engagement partners' attributes. Our findings emphasise that engagement partners' attributes do not have any impact on real activities-based earnings management but have an impact on accruals-based earnings management. Female engagement partners have a negative effect on the absolute value of discretionary accruals, especially in negative discretionary accruals. On the other hand, we find that engagement partners with longer experience have negative impact on the absolute and negative discretionary accruals.

Keywords: earnings quality; engagement partner; gender; experience; accruals; real activities; Turkey; emerging markets; jel codes: M40; M41.

DOI: 10.1504/AAJFA.2018.095236

Afro-Asian Journal of Finance and Accounting, 2018 Vol.8 No.4, pp.351 - 388

Received: 12 May 2017
Accepted: 07 Nov 2017
Published online: 02 Oct 2018 *

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