We identify connected auditors as those who attended the same university as the executives of their clients. Using manually collected data from China, we find that connected auditors are more likely to issue favorable audit opinions, especially for financially distressed clients. Moreover,...

This paper examines the determinants of internal audit outsourcing from the macro perspective of financial ecological environment. We find that in regions with a poor financial ecological environment, firms are more likely to outsource internal audit and more inclined to outsource to other...