Table 1 presents the descriptive statistics. Since we obtain our data from CHR (2005), and audit
committee related measures are our additional variables, our discussion focuses on the audit committee
measures. The average size (ACSIZE) of the audit committee is 3.88 directors. Eighty-six percent of
the audit committees comprise solely independent directors (ACIND). Fourteen percent of the audit
committees have at least one ‘‘auditing expert” (AUDEXP) while another 37% have at least one
‘‘accounting expert” (ACCEXP). The mean (median) number of other directorships held by audit committee
members (DIRBUSY) is 1.58 (1.50), while the mean (median) tenure of the audit committee
members (DIRTENURE) is 6.89 (6.33) years. Fifty-three percent of the audit committees had four or
more meetings (MEET4) during the year.