The Effect of the Auditor''''s Materiality Thresholds Disclosures on Investor''''s Decisions: An Experimental Study

Several standard setting bodies have begun to verify and examine the additional disclosure of materiality thresholds in key audit matters; as little is known about how financial statement users understand, respond to and/or incorporate audit materiality in their investment decisions, In addition, to the importance of materiality in interpreting the auditor''s efforts. This research aims to find an experimental evidence about the effect of the auditor''s materiality disclosure on investor decisions, as well as whether this impact is differently affected by the type of investment.
To achieve the objective of this research, the researcher relied on a sample of 189 professional investors, through an experimental design of 2 × 3 + 1 to test the hypotheses; this experimental design includes materiality disclosure (presence or absence of the materiality disclosure) and two levels of quantitative materiality disclosure (4% or 10% from pretax income); additionally the Type of investment (public equity, private equity, public debt).                                                     
The results showed a significant main effect of the materiality disclosure on investors'' decisions; as the lower the materiality level, the greater the level of investment. The materiality disclosure helps investors to better assess the reliability of the financial statements and to better assess the reliability on profits to evaluate investment. In addition, the study also concludes that the materiality disclosure does not affect investors'' decisions differently depending on the type of investment