We investigate whether non-GAAP reporting results in less conservative auditor materiality judgments, as measured by auditors' determination of quantitative materiality thresholds. Using a sample of audit reports for Premium Listed companies on the London Stock Exchange for the 2013-2014 fiscal...

We analyze whether information asymmetry affects three major aspects of the audit process using an instrumental variables research design that exploits exogenous increases in information asymmetry stemming from brokerage house mergers and closures. Consistent with our predictions, we find that a...

As part of planning and performing financial statement audits, auditors must assess their clients' risk. Assessed risk permeates the audit process, driving decisions regarding client retention, audit pricing, the extent of audit testing, and the nature of auditors' written opinions. Although...

Although prior research has claimed that audit committees with more expertise secure better auditors and enjoy higher quality earnings, a deeper understanding of this premise compels consideration of the factors that less-expert audit committees consider when choosing auditors if indeed they are...

We find that non-Big 4 audit offices with greater awareness of SEC enforcement are more likely to issue first-time going concern reports to distressed clients; where SEC “awareness” is measured using (1) audit office proximity to SEC regional offices, and (2) proximity to specific SEC...

We examine the decision relevance of a commonly suggested adjustment to how state governments report governmental pension liabilities by recalculating such pension liabilities using the return on a portfolio of high quality municipal bonds as the discount rate. Calculated as the difference...

We use hand-collected audit partner data to show that approximately one-third of clients are audited by partners located more than 100 kilometers away from the clients' corporate headquarters. We explore the role that partner location plays in audits by first modeling how it affects the matching...

We study the effects of analyst coverage on syndicated lending. We hypothesize that analyst research alleviates information asymmetries between lead arrangers and participant lenders within a syndicate, increasing the participants’ credit supply and reducing the required loan interest spread....