This paper investigates the common, yet previously opaque, practice of using foreign audit firms (component auditors) to conduct portions of audit work for U.S. public companies. U.S. regulators have expressed concern for the transparency and quality of audits using component auditors. Employing...

The mandatory retirement age within U.S. audit firms ranges from 55 to 62, which has resulted in both controversy and legal scrutiny. The potential cost of requiring partners to retire at an age that is far younger than in other countries and related professions is the loss of their connections,...

We use new data to examine auditor response to negative media coverage of client environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices. This coverage can be indicative of an increased risk of material misstatement, which is an important assessment in client retention and pricing decisions....

Limited data availability on the internal audit function (IAF) has constrained research on the topic. This study uses unique, manually collected data from LinkedIn on internal audit personnel that overcomes certain limitations of previous survey-based data. Using this longitudinal data, we test...

PCAOB inspections repeatedly indicate deficiencies in audits of FV estimates, resulting in efforts by regulators to improve the related guidance and auditing standards (PCAOB 2017a). Nevertheless, regulators cannot fully resolve the complexity and inherent subjectivity in auditing fair value...

This paper investigates whether financially constrained firms use costly audit signals to facilitate their access to external financing. We document that when facing higher financial constraints, firms pay higher audit fees and have their audit opinion reports completed sooner. The higher audit...

This paper investigates the common, yet previously opaque, practice of using foreign audit firms (component auditors) to conduct portions of audit work for U.S. public companies. U.S. regulators have expressed concern for the transparency and quality of audits using component auditors. Employing...

This study investigates the determinants, textual properties, and consequences of the newly disclosed U.S. critical audit matters (CAMs). We find that complexity, financial reporting issues, and the magnitude of accounts that require high degrees of judgment significantly determine the quantity...

We examine investors’ reaction and the audit market implications of the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (HFCAA), which threatens to delist Chinese issuers whose auditors are not subject to PCAOB inspection. We observe negative market returns for U.S.-listed Chinese issuers,...

We contribute to the literature on auditor’s task-specific expertise by examining the role of auditor experience in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), a complicated and increasingly prevalent corporate event that can give rise to misreporting. We find that in industries with more complex...