Predicting Audit Failure : Evidence From Auditing Enforcement Releases

This study aims to identify the main determinants of audit failure and contribute to the current debate raised by recent European Union regulation on auditor's tenure and economic policies to prevent impairment of auditor's independence. We approach audit failure through auditing enforcement releases triggered by the investigations conducted by the Spanish public oversight board. The sample of sanctioned individual auditors and audit firms covers the period 2002 to 2013. Our results reveal that audit failure likelihood increases when the probability of financial distress is higher, the auditor is permissive of upward earnings management, and the audit report is signed by an individual auditor. The results reveal a positive association between auditor tenure and audit failure only for individual auditors. The relative economic weight of the auditor–client is also positively associated with audit failure, plausibly because audit firms are more concerned with reputation loss tied to big scandals than succumbing to economic pressure from their clients