Recent increases in the occurrence and magnitude of goodwill impairment charges highlight the increasing importance of the role of the auditor in goodwill accounting. This study examines the association between disclosures about the fair value measurement of goodwill and audit fees. We find that...

Auditors frequently use valuation specialists to help them improve the quality of audits of fair values, but problems related to specialists' involvement suggest specialists do not always improve audit quality. I interviewed 28 audit partners and managers with extensive experience using...

In this study, we examine whether banks' use of the loan loss provision (LLP) to manage earnings is associated with 1) the extent to which banks hold assets subject to fair value reporting and 2) the use of an industry specialist auditor. We find that banks with a greater proportion of assets...

This study empirically examines whether difference in audit quality is reflected in the pricing of other comprehensive income (OCI). Specifically, we first investigate whether OCI measures of Big 4 clients are more-value relevant than those of non-Big 4 clients. Considering different degrees of...

Auditors frequently use valuation specialists to help them evaluate fair values, but problems related to specialists' involvement suggest the potential benefits of specialists' involvement are under-realized. I interviewed 28 auditors and 14 valuation specialists to investigate how auditors use...

In this paper, I study whether and how auditors develop domain-specific expertise in auditing difficult-to-audit fair value (FV) measurements. Specifically, by analyzing the dispersion in the FV estimates of the same security held by different insurance clients of the same auditor, I provide...

Managers have alternative discretionary choices. I exploit security-level disclosures in the insurance industry to examine auditors’ role in insurers’ choice between using two specific types of discretion to avoid other-than-temporary-impairment (OTTI) losses. Managers can avoid recognizing...

The rising prominence of fair values and other estimates (FVOEs) to financial reporting increases their significance to the audit. Based on inspections that report numerous deficiencies, the PCAOB is concerned that auditors are not sufficiently prepared for the challenges faced in evaluating...

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...