AUDIT COMMITTEES, CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, AND THE QUALITY OF FINANCIAL REPORTING: EVIDENCE FROM AUDITOR LITIGATION AND MARKET REACTIONS TO EARNINGS ANNOUNCEMENTS

This dissertation examines the effects of corporate audit committees and internal governance structures on the quality of the corporate financial reporting and auditing process. The purposes of this dissertation are three-folds. First, as an extension to prior research in this area, this dissertation identifies and analyzes potential audit committee characteristics, which may be associated with the effectiveness of the corporate audit committee's oversight role in the financial reporting and auditing process. Second, this dissertation recognizes and analyzes the importance of internal governance structures in the corporate financial reporting and auditing process. Finally, through two distinct empirical studies, this dissertation investigates and documents the evidence on the hypothesized relations between the identified characteristics of corporate financial governance and the quality of corporate financial reporting. The first empirical study investigates the role of audit committees and the internal governance process in the context of auditor litigation. The second empirical study investigates the effects of audit committee characteristics and internal governance processes on market reactions to corporate financial reporting in a capital market setting. The results of these two studies suggest that firms with effective audit committees and strong internal governance structures are less likely to have financial reporting and auditing problems, and that capital markets respond more favorably to earnings news from such firms. Thus, the results provide support for the importance and effectiveness of audit committees and internal corporate governance structures in the financial reporting and auditing process. As such, the results support public and regulatory efforts to increase the quality of financial reporting by enhancing the corporate financial governance process.