The role of audit committees and audit quality in ensuring the quality of corporate financial reporting has come under considerable scrutiny due to recent high-profile earnings management cases in the world. The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between the audit committee effectiveness, audit quality and earnings management practices of more active 50 Egyptian companies listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange of the nonfinancial sector during the period 2007-2010. After controlling for size, leverage and cash flow from operation activities, the results of univariate and multivariate analyses indicated that audit committees independence; experience of audit committee members; audit committee meetings; and audit quality have significant negative association with discretionary accruals as a proxy for earnings management. On the other hand, no significant relationship is found between audit committees size and the level of discretionary accruals. This paper is important because it offers useful information that is of great value to policy makers, academics and other stakeholders.

Accounting information, value relevance, and investors' behavior in the Egyptian equity market Aiman A. Ragab Mohammad M. Omran Article information:To cite this document: Aiman A. Ragab Mohammad M. Omran, (2006),"Accounting information, value relevance, and investors' behavior in the Egyptian equity market", Review of Accounting and Finance, Vol. 5 Iss 3 pp. 279 -297 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to examines empirically whether national and international investors in the Egyptian stock market perceive accounting information based on the Egyptian Accounting Standards to be useful in stock valuation. Design/methodology/approach -Using a sample of all available listed firms in the emerging market data base from 1998 to 2002, evidence of the value relevance of accounting information in Egypt was obtained, based on both return and price models. Findings -The results suggest that stock prices in Egypt are less information about the future value of the firm than is accounting information. It is perhaps unreasonable to conclude that accounting information has higher value relevance in Egypt because financial reporting is of higher quality. It might, however, imply that competing information sources such as earnings forecasts, firm research by financial analysts, management conference calls, etc. are far less relevant in Egypt. Originality/value -This study is of value in that it highlights how the Egyptian stock market needs complementary information sources other than published accounting reports, to become more informationally efficient.

Corporate governance is well thought-out to have major implications for the growth prediction of an economy. Fine corporate governance practices are viewed as important in decreasing risk for investors; catch the attention of investment capital and improving the performance of firms. However, the way in which corporate governance is prearranged differs between countries, relying on their economic, political and social circumstance.

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play a vital role in the global economy. It had a major part in creating jobs and as a source of social stability, either there is major contribution for SMEs in Egypt as it faces great economy challenges that need cooperation from all parties. However, access to finance is still one of the greatest obstacles facing SMEs all over the world and prevents them from developing. This research is important to fill the research gap which appears in the limited researches that present main factors adopted by the credit decision maker in Banks for evaluating the SMEs. Purpose of this study is to make a progress for filling the gap through exploring these factors. The research was guided by the following research questions: What are the factors that influence credit decision making for lending SMEs? What framework is available to improve the SMEs lending process in the Egyptian Banks? Case study strategy and Quantitative Methods were adopted. Data was gathered from 313 structured questionnaires answered by credit risk and marketing employees from National Bank of Egypt (NBE). The author tested five hypotheses on the relationship between variables, with the SPSS "Package for the Social Sciences" and AMOS "Analysis of a Moment Structure". They were utilized to interpret the results. The findings provide evidence that factors, like Owner/Manager Character, Capacity, Firm Capital Size, Credit Bureau Report with the availability and Credibility of Financial statements, had a huge impact on Credit Decision for lending SMEs. From the research results, there was framework designing to enhance the credit risk assessment process, which could decrease the uncertainty and time consuming in the lending decision and it might reflect positively on the national economy development.

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