We examine how the tightening of the U.S. auditing oligopoly over the last twenty-five years-from the Big 8 to the Big 6, the Big 5, and, then, the Big 4-has affected the incentives of the Big N, as manifest in their lobbying preferences on accounting standards. We find, as the oligopoly has...

We investigate the effect of standard setters in standard setting. We examine how certain professional and political characteristics of FASB members and SEC commissioners predict the accounting “reliability” and “relevance” of proposed standards. Notably, we find FASB members with...

We examine the accrual choices of outsourcing firms with links to US congressional candidates during the 2004 elections, when corporate outsourcing was a major campaign issue. We find that politically-connected firms with more extensive outsourcing activities have more income-decreasing...