I examine the effect of auditors’ industry specialization at the asset level. Focusing on insurance companies whose assets comprise investment in financial securities across a wide range of industries, I provide initial evidence that audit firms’ specialization in a security’s industry is...

Insurance pricing is subject to stricter regulation in some states than others. This cross-sectional variation, coupled with the occurrence of staggered deregulation in several states, enables a powerful test of the political cost hypothesis that managers manipulate accruals to mitigate adverse...