Audit committee’s attributes, overlapping memberships on the audit committee and corporate risk disclosure: Evidence from Jordan

Abstract

This paper aims to contribute to the literature by examining whether audit committees' attributes affect risk disclosure practiced by Jordanian listed companies. Selecting a sample of 94 Jordanian companies listed on Amman Stock Exchange, the authors carried out a manual content analysis on annual reports to determine the level of risk disclosure. Random effect model was employed in the analysis. Empirical results show that the audit committee size had a positive effect on the level of risk disclosure. However, there was no evidence that the frequency of the audit committee meetings, expertise or overlapping of the audit committee membership were significantly related to the risk disclosure. The findings are important for standard setters to improve their comprehension about the influence of audit committee in disclosing risk information and reconsider the effective monitoring role played by audit committee.