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This paper aims to examine the effect of conditional conservatism on audit fees and whether the firm’s engagement in sustainable practices moderates the relationship between conditional conservatism and audit fees.

Using a sample of 3,767 firm-year observations from 14 European Union countries over the period of 2006–2019, the authors adopt the ordinary least square estimator to perform a panel data analysis of the effect of conditional conservatism on audit fees, and the moderating role of the environmental, social and governance (ESG) scores on the relationship between conditional conservatism and audit fees.

The authors find that conditional conservatism has a significant negative effect on audit fees, suggesting that auditors charge lower audit fees on more conservative clients. The authors also find that firms engaging in ESG actions, whether combined or individual, pay higher audit fees. More interestingly, the authors provide evidence that the negative effect of conditional conservatism on audit fees is mitigated only when ESG performance is considered in combination. This implies that firms exhibiting less commitment to ESG sustainability practices are prone to paying reduced audit fees when engaged in more conservative reporting. The findings remain robust after conducting a battery of tests.

The findings of this study have practical implications for several parties, including companies, auditors and regulators. This study emphasizes the potential benefit associated with using conservative accounting practices in terms of shaping downward the amount of audit fees. However, it also highlights the importance of considering the additional audit costs associated with higher ESG scores when making decisions about implementing sustainable practices.

Unlike prior studies that investigate the direct impact of sustainable practices on audit fees, the present work contributes to the literature on the benefits and costs of ESG by examining the moderating role of ESG performance in the association between audit fees and conditional conservatism. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine this relationship. Theoretically, the research integrates the theories of audit risk and agency to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the drivers of audit fees.

This research aims to explore the perceived usefulness of audited social information in making economic decisions, in the eyes of both Tunisian financial analysts and bankers.

The authors conduct an exploratory qualitative study using twelve semi-structured interviews: seven are carried out with financial analysts, and five are performed among bankers.

This study’s results reveal that financial analysts and bankers paid little attention to the audited social information in making investment/credit granting decisions. The authors also show that the low perceived usefulness of social audit is due to many reasons related to political, economic, regulatory, educational, cultural and cognitive factors.

This study contributes to the current literature in several ways. First, it enriches the knowledge about the perceived usefulness of social audit. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the perception of financial analysts and bankers to audited social information and its usefulness for decision-making. Second, the focus on the Tunisian context is interesting as it was marked, since the outbreak of the Jasmine Revolution, by the uncertainty and the instability of political, economic and social conditions. Third, this research goes further by exploring the most important factors affecting the perceiveness of social auditing.

This study aims to examine the impact of sustainable practices as proxied by the environmental, social and governance (ESG) score on capital structure. It also investigates whether ESG performance influences the speed of adjustment (SOA) to target leverage in firms.

The sample covers 116 non-financial firms listed on the main stock exchanges from five Southeast ASEAN countries (Bursa Malaysia, Indonesia Stock Exchange, Philippines Stock Exchange, Singapore Stock Exchange and Stock Exchange of Thailand) over the period 2012–2019. The study adopts the OLS regression and system-GMM estimators to perform the data analysis.

The authors show that the ESG score is positively associated with book leverage, suggesting that firms increase their debt capital through sustainable practices. However, they find that the ESG score is negatively associated with market leverage across our model estimations. The authors also reveal that environmental, social and governance pillar scores produce about 7.82%, 2.88% and 0.47% SOAs, respectively, higher than the SOA of the traditional SOA without the ESG factor. The aggregate ESG score has about 3.41% SOA higher than the baseline SOA without the ESG factor.

This study is of interest to investors, corporate firms and policymakers. The study demonstrates that the ESG score increases the firm’s SOA to target leverage. By disaggregating the ESG score, the authors establish that ESG pillar scores produce higher SOAs than the traditional SOA (without ESG), with the environmental score inducing the fastest SOA. Practically, the study implies that environmentally sustainable activities reduce environmental transaction costs, benefit firms through better information transparency and enhance a trustful climate between the firm and suppliers of capital. Therefore, this study demonstrates that firms do not only incur the cost of disseminating ESG information but also benefit from lower information asymmetry and a higher SOA with better tax-deductible advantages.

The findings have combined advantages for both stakeholders and directors who monitor and manage the firms’ resources to improve the quality of ESG practices and initiatives.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to establish that sustainable practices induce higher debt capital. Secondly, unlike prior research focusing on the cost of capital, the authors examine whether ESG performance affects capital structure patterns. Thirdly, it documents the extent to which sustainable practices influence the SOA towards target leverage in firms. The authors contribute to corporate finance literature that firms reach faster to their target leverage in the presence of ESG performance. Theoretically, through the notion of the stakeholder proposition, the study establishes that the firms’ pursuance of stakeholder goals further enhances the prediction of the trade-off theory.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the changing relationship between technology and economic activity in MENA countries.

The generalized method of moments (GMM) was applied to explore the presence of dynamic causality between technology, inflation, unemployment, foreign direct investment, trade opening, gross fixed capital formation and economic growth for 14 MENA countries before and after COVID-19.

Empirical evidence shows that the economic predictor variables change signs and impact negatively the economic growth as a result of the adverse consequences of the MENA health crisis. More interestingly, there is a unique, positive, meaningful relationship between ICT and economic growth.

The results show that economic resilience in MENA is significantly affected by digital infrastructure during the epidemic crisis. The authors conclude that macroeconomic adjustment and innovation improve the predictive performance of the health news model. Countries could take strong measures to support new strategies to strengthen their innovation competitiveness.