Audit regulators around the world have expressed concern over market dominance by Big 4 accounting firms and the potential adverse effect it may have on the quality of audited financial statements. We use cross-country variation in the audit market structure of 42 countries to examine two...

Audit regulators around the world have expressed concern over market dominance by Big 4 accounting firms and the potential adverse effect it may have on the quality of audited financial statements. We use cross-country variation in the audit market structure of 42 countries to examine two...

Prior research emphasizes the centrality of audit offices in understanding auditing practices, and documents significant inter-office variation in audit outcomes based on industry expertise and office size. Our study examines how two city-specific labor characteristics also affect audit offices...