Regulatory changes and reporting quality: the moderating role of firm characteristics

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of regulatory changes on financial reporting quality and audit fees and to further test whether this effect was moderated by firm characteristics (i.e. abnormal audit fees, political connections and overlapping directorship) in Nigeria. This study utilized the data of 90 companies listed on the Nigerian stock exchange over the period 2008–2013. Using Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) technique that takes into account the endogeneity nature of financial reporting quality and audit fees model, the results indicated that financial reporting quality improved in the regulatory changes period. However, abnormal audit fees, political connection and overlapping directorship deteriorated the effect. Accordingly, future regulatory reforms must be cognizant of these factors. Even though there are abundant empirical studies on financial regulatory changes and their effects on financial reporting quality, this study provides additional insights into the regulatory change literature by investigating how firm characteristics (abnormal audit fees, political connection and overlapping directorship) moderate the effect of regulatory changes particularly in Nigeria, one of the less developed and underresearched capital markets in the world. Further, the findings of this study are robust with respect to the issues of unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity, which previous studies had failed to consider.