In this study, we use a survey instrument to obtain perspectives from over 700 auditors about present-day audit workloads and the relationship between audit workloads, audit quality, and job satisfaction. Our findings indicate that auditors are working, on average, five hours per week above the...

Using a sample of public firm FCPA violations, we investigate how auditors respond to FCPA risk. We find that audit fees are higher for FCPA violators beginning in the violation period with an additional increase during the period in which regulatory investigations occur. Fees exhibit a greater...

This case requires students to apply accounting and ethical decision-making within the context of a potential land impairment decision. Students are required to research the relevant professional literature and provide appropriate FASB Codification references and IAS cites as they investigate...

This study examines the extent to which audit clients successfully engage in internal control opinion shopping activities and whether audit market competition appears to facilitate those activities. Regulators have long been concerned about the impact of both audit market competition and opinion...

In this paper, we investigate whether refinancing pressure leads managers to manipulate earnings. Our tests examine the relation between changes in short-term debt and discretionary accruals. We find that firms have higher discretionary accruals during periods of increasing short-term debt. We...

We examine competition for Andersen's public clients during and after its failure in 2002. This setting provides a natural experiment to examine audit market dynamics at the local level. We construct a database documenting Big4 purchases of local Andersen offices. After exploring the factors...

Using U.S. data from a global accounting firm, we investigate whether two key elements of audit teams – team workloads and staffing continuity – affect audit outcomes. We find that greater team workloads are associated with lower audit quality, particularly when team members spend more time...

In this study, we investigate the financial reporting behavior of chief financial officers (CFOs) with prior audit experience. Our tests indicate that, on average, CFOs who were former auditors report less aggressively than CFOs without prior audit experience. Thus, the mindset that auditors...

Recent amendments to Auditing Standard (AS) 3101 require disclosure of the initial year of the auditor-client relationship in the audit report. As the standard was being discussed, auditors, clients, and some PCAOB members expressed reservations about the necessity of tenure disclosures and were...

This paper investigates how auditors respond to shareholder activism against their clients. We find that activism targets pay higher audit fees and also are more likely to receive adverse internal control opinions and first-time going concern opinions. Our results suggest that the increased...