Female director characteristics of audit committee and corporate transparency

Abstract

This paper empirically examines whether the characteristics of female directors of audit committee affect the corporate transparency based on the data of China’s Shenzhen A-share listed companies from 2004 to 2007. The results from our sample show that, overall, the academic professional background of female directors has significantly positive impact on corporate transparency; the age of female directors has significantly negative impact on corporate transparency; the accounting expertise and education of female directors have no significant effects on corporate transparency. Further analysis also show that the significant impact relationship between the academic professional background or age of female directors and corporate transparency only in the lower legal level region. The result shows that the different characteristics of female directors pay different roles in affecting corporate transparency. This chapter provides some empirical evidences for perfecting the China’s audit committee system.