Watts and Zimmerman (1979, 1986) portray the external audit as a natural consequence of an agency model where shareholders demand reliable information and managers respond by arranging for an independent audit to make credible the financial statements whose contents they control. Independent,...

Society's perception of the legitimacy of the accounting profession and its members is grounded in the verbal and visual images of accountants that are projected not only by accountants themselves but also by the media. The paper uses the critical literature on stereotypes to examine how books...