The Effect of Executive Age and Executive Gender on Financial Statement Comparability

Abstract

<p>This study investigates the association between chief executive officer (CEO) age and gender and financial reporting quality measured by comparability. Comparability helps users’ decision-making by enabling them to compare the available alternatives. The regression models are estimated using 15,615 firm-years to examine the relationship between CEO age and comparability, and 15,969 firm-years to examine that between CEO gender and comparability, for the period from 1992 to 2020. This study predicts that CEO age and CEO gender are positively associated with comparability. The findings are consistent with the prediction. This study extends the corporate governance and financial reporting quality literature by establishing CEO age and gender as determinants of comparability. The findings are independent of a battery of sensitivity tests including applying alternative comparability measures, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) age and gender, average Top Management Team (TMT) age, changes in CEO gender, tenure, and curvilinear impact of CEO age.</p>