We examine whether supply shocks in the audit partner labor market induce clients to switch audit partners. We argue that audit partners in their early careers (i.e., junior partners) charge low audit fees to attract clients, which induces client firms to switch from senior partners to junior...

Related party transactions (RPTs) are considered a potential tool for shareholders' wealth expropriation, as they offer opportunities to transfer wealth between the firm and related parties. While considerable evidence has been reported on the negative consequences of RPTs (declines in...

We investigate how a high degree of audit market concentration and auditor reputation affect audit quality. Using audit adjustments to student loan loss provisions in government audits to construct a new measure for excessive audit conservatism, we show that an audit market monopoly leads to...

The main objectives of recent audit market regulations are to (1) increase audit quality, (2) decrease audit market concentration, and (3) foster competition between audit firms. However, the empirical evidence on whether such regulations fulfill these goals is limited. We construct a unique...

How can features of the markets for audit and nonaudit services (NAS) affect an audit firm's incentives to invest in audit quality, average audit quality, and social welfare? We address these questions in a model focusing on competition in both audit and NAS markets. We show that, when audit and...

The so-called “revolving door” for employees moving from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) to the accounting firms it regulates has received heightened scrutiny recently. Hendricks, Landsman, and Peña-Romera (HLP) (2019) document that large audit firms exhibit improved...

A primary concern facing the PCAOB's requirement of disclosing critical audit matters (CAMs) is increased auditor litigation risk. Evidence with Key Audit Matters from the U.K. indicates auditors may subsequently remove a CAM or continue to report the same CAM for several years. Therefore, we...

One of the key reforms aimed at improving audit quality has been the introduction of public oversight over the auditing profession by national public oversight bodies (POBs). The foundation of their strategy is inspections of audit firms. However, little is known about the impact of inspections...

We examine the effects of the 1998 merger of Price Waterhouse (PW) and Coopers & Lybrand (CL) on the audit quality of the merged firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) at both the firm- and office-levels, where audit quality is surrogated by the auditor's propensity to issue a going concern opinion,...

Audits by private, third-party auditors are frequently mandated to ensure compliance with regulations (e.g., accounting or environmental standards). We examine how such mandates shape the market for audits. In our empirical examination, we focus on one of the oldest and most prominent audit...