Recently, the Commission of the European Communities has put up for discussion various reform proposals intended to enhance the reliability of audits and to re-establish trust in the financial market. In particular, the EU Commission seeks to strengthen auditor independence and to decrease the...

Although the role of auditing is to increase the reliability of financial statements, surprisingly little is known about addressees’ perceptions of the auditor-client relationship. Using a sample of more than 1,000 U.S. bank-years from 2008 to 2011, we analyze the economic consequences of the...

In its recently published Green Paper, the European Commission 2010 discusses various methods to enhance the reliability of audits and to re-establish trust in the financial market. The Commission primarily focuses on increasing auditor independence and on reducing the high level of audit market...

In the ongoing discussions on audit regulation, the key issues of auditor independence and a high level of audit market concentration have become apparent. However, there is the concern that regulations intended to improve auditor independence (i.e., restrictions regarding the joint supply of...

International Accounting Standard 39 (IAS 39) and the Statement of Financial Accounting Standard 159 (SFAS 159) both require a firm to include adjustments to the fair values of its liabilities resulting from changes in its own credit risk in net income. Previous research confirms that including...

This paper focuses on the traditionally close relationship between financial and tax accounting in Germany by looking first at the historical developments. The so-called authoritativeness principle dates back to the late 19th century. By describing the different facets of the authoritativeness...

This paper analyses optimal overhead allocation in a simple one-period setting with several divisions (production, sales or service departments). At the begin-ning of the period, headquarters has to decide on the procurement of a common input. The divisions possess private information on their...