This paper studies the relevance of audit qualifications and auditor selection for the external stakeholders of private companies in code-law countries. Employing a sample of private Spanish firms, we find that the cost of debt is not influenced by auditor opinion, but it is strongly influenced...

This paper addresses the relevance of auditor's opinion and auditor's reputation for the creditors of private companies in an environment of low demand for audit quality. By employing archival data from private Spanish firms, we find that Big-4 auditors' clients bear a lower cost of debt,...

This paper considers whether the existing measures of credit risk order and quantify corporate credit risk in the same way. Eight measures of credit risk of different natures are compared: Altman's Z, Ohlson's O, Hannan and Hanweck model, Zmijewski model, bond spreads, CDS spreads,...