We examine whether auditors effectively incorporate cues indicating increased risk into their evaluation of fair value estimates. Consistent with concerns from PCAOB inspections, more than one-third of fair value estimates in our security-level dataset differ from the true fair value by an...

We investigate whether PCAOB identified audit deficiencies lead to higher audit fees or turnover likelihood for clients of Big 4 auditors. To examine this, we identify areas of GAAP related to PCAOB deficiencies for each auditor. We then use textual analysis to identify how important the...

We examine the impact of PCAOB Auditing Standard No. 5 (“AS5”) and the economic recession on risk characteristics and degree of auditor/client misalignment in the publicly-traded client portfolios of Big 4 firms. AS5 and the economic recession both likely resulted in an increase in audit...