We exploit the technological closeness among clients of the same auditor to examine whether auditors accumulate knowledge from their clients’ technological proximity. We find that a client firm’s technological proximity to other clients of its audit office improves audit quality and results...

This study investigates whether financial reporting quality is affected by an auditor's experience of litigation in the recent past. We find that the likelihood of an accounting misstatement and the magnitudes of misstatements are significantly lower for non-Big 4 auditors who recently suffered...

This study investigates the audit firm's decision to protect its partners' personal assets by becoming a limited liability partnership (LLP). We find that the likelihood of an audit firm switching from unlimited to limited liability is increasing in its size and exposure to litigation risk. We...

We examine how often audit firms are sued in a large sample of accounting lawsuits that allege financial reporting failures. We find an insignificant relation between the likelihood of auditor litigation and restatements but the likelihood of auditor litigation is strongly related to the types...

Prior research finds that women receive lower salaries than men. Similarly, we show that female audit partners in Belgium receive significantly lower compensation than male partners. However, there are alternative explanations for the pay gap other than gender discrimination. For example, the...

We examine whether auditors respond to cybersecurity risks by investing more heavily in cybersecurity human capital. Additionally, we explore auditors’ role in helping their non-breached clients in raising cybersecurity awareness and investing in cybersecurity personnel. We find that audit...

Prior research finds that women receive lower salaries than men. Similarly, we show that female audit partners in Belgium receive significantly lower compensation than male partners. However, there are alternative explanations for the pay gap other than gender discrimination. For example, the...