Disclosure quality is a matter of great importance in the accounting literature. This study examines the effect of audit fees, audit firm size and audit opinion on the quality of disclosures. It focuses on a sample of low-quality financial statements in Jordan that have been reported as breaches by the Jordanian Securities Commission (JSC). Data were collected from the financial statements of the manufacturing and services companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) during the period 2009 to 2016. The logistic regression results suggest that audit fees have a positive significant effect, while audit opinion has a negative significant effect on actual violations. However, audit firm size was found to be insignificant in relation to the level of violations.

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While the effect of ownership structure on the level of cash holdings has been widely examined, that of government ownership has been understudied. Using a generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation on the panel data of 107 Jordanian firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange, this research adds to the limited literature on the relationship between government ownership and the level of corporate cash holdings. Consistent with agency theory, the findings reveal that firms with government ownership hold higher levels of cash and that such ownership creates agency problems. Other types of ownership, namely individual, foreign, and block holders, were found to be insignificant. The results provide an important implication for policy makers in Jordan: in order to reduce agency problems associated with government ownership, the government should revise its ownership policy and ensure it specifies clear purposes and expectations of business ownership and how it intends to exercise its rights as owner.

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Purpose This study aims to examine the impact of low-quality financial statements; that is, disclosure violations reported by the Securities Exchange Commission related to the level of cash holdings (CH) of firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE). Design/methodology/approach Using panel data from 107 ASE-listed companies from 2009 to 2018, the study uses generalized method of moment estimation to examine the research hypothesis. This study hypothesize that disclosure violations can affect the level of CH and control for several variables that affect this level. Findings The results show that disclosure violations significantly affect the level of CH and that cash flow, capital expenditure and debt issues have a significantly positive impact on corporate CH. On the other hand, the market to book ratio and sales growth were found to be insignificant. Research limitations/implications The limitations of the research include the fact that information on research and development and equity issues were not available, so were not included in the examination. Practical implications It is recommended that managers enhance the quality of disclosures since this allows them to hold lower levels of cash and exploit more investment opportunities. Policymakers are recommended to supervise firm disclosures closely and create ratings for disclosure quality. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first empirical research on the association between proven low-quality disclosures and the level of corporate CH among Jordanian listed companies.