Our findings also have broader implications for public policy. Municipal financial information is used to make important resource allocation, taxing, and financing decisions, and to set government fiscal policies that significantly impact the economy (e.g., with expenditures comprising 16 percent of GDP at all levels of government in 2012) (World Bank 2012). Evaluating the extent to which audit committees are associated with municipal internal control policies is potentially helpful for evaluating the conditions under which municipal officials more aptly fulfill their stewardship responsibilities, one of the primary roles of governmental accounting regulations (Government Accounting Standards Board [GASB] 2006)