Walid Shehata Mohamed Kasim Soliman

There is an academic discussion about investment efficiency, regarding its determinants and effects. Corporate Governance (CG) and Audit Quality (AQ) are determinants of investment efficiency The main objective of the article is to investigate the effect of CG and AQ on investment efficiency, this objective is divided into sub-objectives: to investigate the direct effect of CG on AQ, AQ on investment efficiency, and CG on investment efficiency. Moreover, the indirect effect of CG on investment efficiency through AQ as a mediator variable. This paper focuses on non-financial listed firms in the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX), especially firms recorded in EGX 100 for four years’ period (2013–2018), for 103 firms and 412 completed observations. The researcher uses Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through SmartPLS software. The paper shows evidence that management that has good CG mechanisms obtains a suitable atmosphere to prepare transparent financial statements, which helps enhance the auditor’s role and improve AQ. Improving AQ lowering IA, which increases the trust of investors in management decisions, this leads to reduce pressure on management and improve efficiency of investment decisions. Having good CG mechanisms provides management with a good atmosphere to make right investment decisions, and having good CG mechanisms increases AQ, which helps management to have a good environment to make investment decisions with higher efficiency, or in other words, there is a significant and positive effect of integration between CG and AQ on investment efficiency.

There is an academic discussion about the value relevance of deferred tax, which aims to find out the effect of deferred tax on the investors’ decisions. In light of this discussion, the first question is about the impact of deferred tax on management practices to manipulate earnings, which is called earnings management, the second question is about the value relevance of earnings management, the third question is about the value relevance of deferred tax, and the fourth question is about the mediating effect of earnings management. The paper focuses on listed firms in the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX), especially firms that were recorded in EGX 100, for six-year period (2013–2018) for 107 firms and 642 completed observations. The findings are as follows: management uses deferred tax to manipulate earnings, since an increase in deferred tax amounts increases earnings management practices; there is no value relevance of earnings management, which means earnings management practices do not affect the investors’ decisions; there is value relevance of deferred tax, which confirms that deferred tax is one of the determinants that affect the investors’ decisions; there is no value relevance of deferred tax through earnings management as a mediator variable since investors are not interested in earnings management practices to make their investment decisions. This paper investigates the relationship between deferred tax, earnings management, and value relevance in the Egyptian context.