M.A. Thesis:

udit Committee, Board Diversity And Fraudulent Financial Reporting

Abstract Fraudulent Financial reporting has become a significant issue in recent years. Fraudulent financial statements pose a serious and significant threat to the credibility of the public, especially investors, with the financial information reported. Financial reporting fraud undermines the reliability, quality, transparency and integrity of financial statements. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of audit committee characteristics and gender diversity on the likelihood of fraudulent financial reporting. For this purpose, information related to 156 companies active in the stock exchange during the years 2015 to 2019 was collected and analyzed using Stata statistical software. The research method is logistic regression and panel data. Based on the research findings and statistical tests, it can be said that there is a negative and significant relationship between independence, expertise and gender diversity of the audit committee with the possibility of fraudulent financial reporting. The results also showed that there is a negative and significant relationship between gender diversity of the board and the possibility of fraudulent financial reporting. However, no significant relationship was found between the number of audit committee meetings and the possibility of fraudulent financial reporting.

Keywords: Keywords: Audit Committee Independence, Audit Committee Expertise, Audit Committee Gender Diversity,