Characteristics of the audit committee and auditor opinion shopping

Agency theory emphasizes the role of the audit committee in assuring shareholders and reducing agency problems. The audit committee is a corporate governance mechanism that, if effective, minimizes suspicious audit changes that signal the purchase of the auditor's opinion. The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between the existence of audit committee in companies and its characteristics (independence, expertise and size) and the purchase of auditor's opinion.

In order to test the hypotheses, the data of 135 companies for the period 2005 to 2021 and 2013 to 2021 have been used for different hypotheses. To test the first hypothesis, the t-test was used, and the second, third, and fourth hypotheses were using the logistic model.

The results of the first hypothesis test showed that the purchase of comments has decreased during the period when the audit committee was formed in the companies. Also, there is a negative and significant relationship between the independence and expertise of the members and the purchase of the auditor's opinion, but there is no significant relationship between the size of the committee and the purchase of the opinion.

Originality:

 This research opened a new window of audit related discussions to the researchers and was conducted for the first time in Iran.