We analyze data made available through the PCAOB (Public Company Accounting Oversight Board) to provide descriptive evidence on the properties of auditors' actual quantitative materiality judgments and the implications of those judgments for financial reporting. Auditors' quantitative...

We analyze data made available through the PCAOB (Public Company Accounting Oversight Board) to provide descriptive evidence on the properties of auditors' actual quantitative materiality judgments and the implications of those judgments for financial reporting. Auditors' quantitative...

Using proprietary data, we analyze how a variety of audit composition and team characteristics are associated with audit effectiveness and efficiency. We find that more time allocated prior to the final phase of the audit is associated with more effective audits. We also decompose the time...

We examine whether securities lawyers involved in SEC comment letter inquiries act as client advocates by resisting disclosure changes or as gatekeepers by encouraging disclosure transparency. Consistent with an advocacy role, we find that securities lawyers' involvement in SEC comment letters...

This paper re-examines whether auditor-provided tax services (APTS) are associated with better or worse audit quality. While some believe that one accounting firm providing both audit and tax services to a client improves audit quality through knowledge spillover, others are concerned that...

We analyze the disposition of auditor-proposed adjustments to financial statements. Our analysis addresses concerns, expressed by regulators and others, that auditors and their clients fixate on quantitative thresholds and overlook qualitative factors in assessing the materiality of discovered...

In this paper we investigate why auditors fail to report material weaknesses in internal controls (ICMWs) in advance of misstated audited financial statements. To address this question, we analyze Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) proprietary data on audit clients' internal...

We provide large-sample archival evidence on the nature and consequences of immaterial error corrections. The incidence of these error corrections has been steadily increasing since about 2004, and they are associated with modestly but discernibly negative share price returns that are more...

I examine how recognition versus disclosure of the fair value of stock compensation affects the compensation decision (the amount and structure of options awarded). The median firm in my sample disclosed fair value option costs equal to about 7% of profits in 1996 and 11% of profits in 2004....

We investigate whether national office governance is associated with audit quality provided by local audit offices. We proxy for national office governance using two measures of geographical proximity, distance and frequent, direct airline routes between a practice office and the national office...