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ABSTRACTManuscript Type: EmpiricalResearch Question/Issue: We examine the relation between independence of audit committee and firm value with a sample of Fortune 200 companies.Research Findings/Insights: Using a sample of Fortune 200 companies and defining top executives of other publicly traded firms as expert‐independent directors and controlling for firm specifics, board features, and individual director characteristics, we find the presence of expert‐independent directors on board and in the audit committee enhances firm value.Theoretical/Academic Implications: We provide empirical evidence to show that by focusing on this restricted definition of independent directors (expert‐independent directors), we are able to examine independence in both the board and audit committee in a different light.Practitioner/Policy Implications: We offer new insights to relate firm value of the composition of audit committee. When expert‐independent directors are of majority control of audit committee, finance‐trained directors improve firm value almost five times to that of firms with independent audit committee alone.

AbstractWe examine the impact of China's announcements of upcoming government environmental audits (GEAs) on firms' corporate social responsibility (CSR). We hypothesize that firms, especially heavily polluting firms, engage in more CSR to proactively burnish their public image to weather forthcoming adverse outcomes from a GEA. Our baseline findings confirm that firms respond to the government's GEA announcement by engaging in more CSR. Additional analysis suggests that reputation concerns and environmental fines mediate the impact of GEA announcements on CSR. Cross‐sectional analyses show that the effect of GEA announcements on CSR is more salient for firms: (1) in a business environment in which GEAs are more effective, (2) that CSR engagement is critically important, or (3) that CSR can serve some special function. Overall, our findings imply that it is generally a good government policy to implement GEAs.