This paper examines the association between audit-firm characteristics and audit-related litigation risk. Previous litigation risk studies have been limited to examining audit-client characteristics, as audit-firm data has generally been unavailable, or available only for a very small set of...

A lawyers claim that the principle of client confidentiality overrides the public's right to know in the wake of wide-spread and deep corporate malfeasance has raised new awareness and concern. The latest round of this debate began with the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Section 307...

Both Canadians and Americans often assume that the legal system works, as with apparently many other aspects of our society, the same in both countries. Just as these other assumptions often fail to stand up to detailed scrutiny, so may the assumption that Arthur Andersen LLP could have been...

Previous research provides evidence that, for the clients of a large audit firm, audit clients with higher perceived business risk bear the expected costs of this risk with higher audit fees. We extend the literature, which focuses on the relation between litigation risk and audit fees, by...

We provide evidence on the long standing concern on auditor conflicts of interest from providing non-audit services (NAS) to audit clients by using rarely explored NAS fee data from 1978-80 Using this earlier setting, we find cross-sectional evidence of improved earnings quality when auditors...

Managing tax risk is one of the greatest challenges for tax departments around the world (creating the opportunities to build relationships with revenue services), starting with the verification audit through to the resolution of tax controversies. A recent survey supports this contention. Key...

The primary argument of this paper is, namely, that the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), is in need of an enforcement mechanism. In drawing attention to this argument, the paper not only proposes considerations which are to be taken into account if such a mechanism is to be...

Accounting fraud and many other forms of fraud and corruption are occurring around the globe. Alternative strategies that are based on sound research-based findings from different situations are needed if there is to be a systematic reduction in the occurrence of these forms of fraud. This...

Identity theft is a rampant problem in the United States. It occurs when one's personal information is stolen for the purpose of impersonating that person, making unauthorized purchases, taking money from bank accounts, opening new lines of credit with the stolen information, or using that...

The overall complexity and estimation uncertainty inherent in financial statements have increased in recent decades; however, the related reports and services have changed very little, including the format of the balance sheet and income statement, the content in the auditor's report, and the...