Abstract

This study aims to examine the factors affecting the independence of audit committees (ACs) in the nonfinancial sector of Bangladesh. It is a quantitative study on 109 Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) listed nonfinancial firms from the year 2013 to 2017 producing 502 firm-year observations. Pooled OLS, random effect, Logit, Tobit, and lag model regressions are the statistical tools applied to test the hypotheses of this study. Empirical results show that large corporate boards and more independent directors on corporate boards provide more independence to the audit committees while large audit committees lag behind regarding independence. It is also found that audit committees enjoy more independence in firms having more institutional ownership but less independence in firms having more insiders’ ownership. The regulation plays an important role by commanding the size and independence of boards which in turn significantly affect audit committee independence. Further regulatory reforms may, therefore, be considered to ensure more independence of corporate audit committees.

摘要

本研究旨在探讨影响孟加拉国非金融部门审计委员会（AC）独立性的因素。这是对2013年至2017年间109家达卡证券交易所（DSE）上市的非金融公司的定量研究，得出502个公司年的观察值。汇总的OLS，随机效应，Logit，Tobit和滞后模型回归是用于检验本研究假设的统计工具。实证结果表明，大型公司董事会和更多独立董事在审计委员会中具有更大的独立性，而大型审计委员会在独立性方面则滞后。还发现，审计委员会在拥有更多机构所有权的公司中享有更大的独立性，而在拥有更多内部人所有权的公司中则具有较低的独立性。该法规通过命令董事会的规模和独立性发挥重要作用，进而严重影响审计委员会的独立性。因此，可以考虑进一步的监管改革，以确保公司审计委员会的更多独立性。