In audit analytical procedures, research has shown that auditors have difficulty proposing possible explanations for financial statement discrepancies (Bedard and Biggs 1991a). One source of this difficulty is that auditors may represent analytical procedures problems incorrectly; that is, their...

The financial security of the investing public relies on high quality service by broker-dealers (BDs), investors' gateway to the financial markets. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has long required auditors to attest to BDs' internal controls and compliance with regulations...

The financial security of the investing public relies on high quality service by broker-dealers (BDs), investors' gateway to the financial markets. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has long required auditors to attest to BDs' internal controls and compliance with regulations...

The audit review process is a key quality control mechanism. Recent evidence from practice suggests that regulatory risk has made reviews more critical, and audit supervisors are struggling with how to effectively deliver the “tough message”. We contribute to the audit review literature by...

While audit opinions for multinational entities are signed by a single national firm, other firms (often in the same global network) participate in gathering and evaluating evidence from client components in other countries. Regulators have recently recognized coordination and monitoring...

Prior research shows that the Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) Section 404(b) integrated audit is associated with lower incidence of misstatements. We predict that under 404(b), the auditor's ability to detect misstatements increases relative to other internal control regimes when greater resources are...

Concern about effective auditing of fair value measurements (FVMs) has risen in recent decades. Building on prior interview-based and experimental research, we provide an engagement-level analysis of challenging FVMs, using quantitative and qualitative data on audit phases from risk assessment...

We investigate how auditors learn the technical aspects of their professional role while performing client engagements, and how that learning process has been shaped by changes in societal, economic and regulatory forces. Prior studies explicitly recognize that auditors need social skills and...

This study examines the relationship of CEO overconfidence with accrual-based earnings management, real activities-based earnings management, and targeting to meet or just beat analyst forecasts. Following Malmendier and Tate (2005), we measure “overconfidence” based on the CEO's tendency to...

This study utilizes attribution theory to guide an exploration of how subordinate auditors understand, rationalize, and internalize recollections of their actual experiences (both worst and best) with audit review. Respondents externally rationalize worst review experiences as the fault of an...