Francis and Yu (2009) and Choi, Kim, Kim, and Zang (2010) report evidence that Big 4 audits are of higher quality when the engagement office is of larger size: specifically, client earnings quality is higher and auditors in larger offices are more likely to issue going concern audit reports. We...

Using a dataset constructed from the EDGAR database, this study investigates whether the timing of filing 10-Ks contains useful information to investors. We argue and find that firms with better earnings news are more likely to file their 10-Ks early. We further show that firms experience...

This paper investigates why a firm would hire an auditor far away from its corporate headquarter. Using a sample from the Audit Analytics database, we show that 75% of the firms hire a Big 4 auditor less than 33 miles away from their headquarters, and the median distance is only 14 miles. For...

Audit reports in China record the names of two signing auditors. Through co-signed audit reports, we observe auditor groups within large Chinese accounting firms. We find that these auditor groups are very stable over time. They act like autonomous units within accounting firms. They control...

Big 6 market shares based on aggregate national data have been used in prior research to infer market leadership and industry expertise, and to differentiate Big 6 accounting firms from one another. In this study it is demonstrated that further differences exist with respect to city-specific...

The concept of “audit quality” is of fundamental importance in auditing but there is little agreement on its definition or measurement. I review several approaches to understanding audit quality and argue that the most meaningful measure of audit quality is based on what the auditor is...

We investigate if the SEC's mandated disclosure of fees for audit and nonaudit services affected the market's perception of auditor independence and earnings quality. Following the initial fee disclosures, we find that the market valuation of quarterly earnings surprises (earnings response...

Recent research documents that common law countries have stronger investor protection laws and more developed financial markets than civil law countries (La Porta et al., 1997, 1998). This line of inquiry is extended in our study to examine if variations in legal systems also affect accounting...

The association of a country's investor protection regime with the quality of reported earnings is examined for a large sample of firms from 42 countries. Three attributes of earnings are evaluated: the magnitude of abnormal accruals, the likelihood of reporting losses, and earnings conservatism...