Accounting information comparability and stock price crash risk: The moderator role of audit quality (Evidence from peers’ firms)

Literature shows that increasing the quality of audit financial statements information increases the Accounting information comparability between peers’ firms. On the other hand, increasing comparability can also reduce the stock price crash risk. Using a panel data regression model, we explore the moderator role of audit quality on the relationship between the comparability of accounting information and stock price crash risk of 137 firms, for the period 2009 to 2018. The results showed that the earnings management as proxy of audit quality mitigates the severity of the negative and significant relationship between the comparability of accounting information and stock price crash risk. This can be due to upward earnings management. This conclusion is robust to the use of different control variables and econometric models. Present study contributes by providing theoretical and empirical evidence on auditing and finance literature. Keywords: Accounting information comparability, audit quality, earnings management and stock price crash risk