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 database of the regulations in effect in the audit markets of 29 countries to …

government quality in firms' choice of external auditors. Choice of a Big 4 auditor may be regarded as a proxy for the demand for …

firm's choice of a Big 4 auditor as a proxy for the demand for high-quality financial reporting. Using a cross …

This paper examines whether firms' auditor choice affects their ability to access foreign equity capital. Using the … equity holdings of 34,837 foreign mutual funds from 28 countries, we find evidence that appointing a Big 4 auditor increases … persists even at the country level. But the importance of auditor choice varies across three exogenous information events. The …

We examine the relation between auditor reputation and earnings management in banks using a sample of banks from 29 … countries. In particular, we examine the implications of two aspects of auditor reputation, auditor type and auditor industry … specialization, for earnings management in banks. We find that both auditor type and auditor industry specialization moderate …

Following large-scale auditor consolidations in the late 1980s and early 1990s, along with Arthur Andersen's collapse … in 2001, the global audit market has become highly concentrated during the past 30 years. Many interested parties …, including regulators, researchers, and practitioners, disagree on whether concentration would benefit or harm the audit market …

As companies expand their operations across national borders, international internal audit assignments are becoming … commonplace. However, the internal audit functions of multinational companies face unique issues since their work quality is … analyze these interactions. For this purpose, fourteen qualitative in-depth interviews with internal audit practitioners …

We investigate the impact of the initiations of national audit inspection programs on firm-specific stock crash risk in … the causal effect of audit quality on crash risk. We find a significant decrease (32.39%) in a firm's crash risk … subsequent to the initiations of audit inspections. This negative effect is stronger for auditors with smaller size, limited …