I examine whether donors favor charities that use high quality auditors and whether the propensity to donate varies directly with audit quality. I find that audit quality affects donor decisions in the market for contributions. From a signaling perspective, charities benefit simply from engaging...

Managers have alternative discretionary choices. I exploit security-level disclosures in the insurance industry to examine auditors’ role in insurers’ choice between using two specific types of discretion to avoid other-than-temporary-impairment (OTTI) losses. Managers can avoid recognizing...