Gendered audit quality An empirical study of Norwegian telecom companies

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of the gender of audit partners and board chairmen on audit quality for Norwegian companies in the telecommunication industry. In addition to gender, this paper also investigates other auditor partner characteristics (experience) and an interaction between the gender of the audit partner and the chairman of the board. The model of Francis & Wang (2008) for abnormal accruals is used in our research as a proxy for audit quality. The sample consists of 145 Norwegian companies in the telecommunication industry, collected from Proff Forvalt (Forvalt.no), Brønnøysundregistrene (Brreg.no) and Finanstilsynet (finanstilsynet.no/virksomhetsregisteret). Our findings suggest that the gender of the audit partner, the experience of the audit partner, and the gender of the chairman of the board have no impact on audit quality.