Purpose – This study aims to examine how public welfare, proxied by the number of national strategic projects, can be influenced by accounting information, which is proxied by net income and audit opinion in financial statements. It investigates the effects of net income and audit opinions on the number of strategic projects, as well as the moderating role of stock trading volume in these relationships.

Research methodology – Using data from 75 companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) and national statistics on national strategic projects cases from 2019 to 2024, the study applies multiple regression and data panel regression, specifically the common effect model with estimated coefficient Driscoll-Kraay. The analysis is grounded in signaling theory.

Findings – The results show that during the pandemic, post-pandemic, and the new normal period of 2019–2024, audit opinion significantly increases strategic projects, which in turn means that public welfare also improves. Also, the interaction between audit opinion and stock trading volume has a significant negative impact on strategic projects. The interaction between net income and stock trading volume has no impact on the increase in the number of strategic projects. As described by signaling theory. Accounting information, as well as improved audit opinion, and financial statements when characterized by strong transparency and accountability, has the potential to play an important role in improving public welfare.

Research limitations – The study focuses only on Indonesian listed companies during the pandemic and post-pandemic until the new era period. Future research could be applied to other countries and longer time spans, and use other variables, namely GDP, Firm size, and Debt Ratio.

Practical implications – The results provide insights for regulators to strengthen accounting and auditing standards.

Originality/Value – This study uniquely identifies the accounting information in affecting public welfare, which is proxied by national strategic projects in Indonesia...