We examine the effects of the 1998 merger of Price Waterhouse (PW) and Coopers & Lybrand (CL) on the audit quality of …, and clients' accrual quality. At the firm-level, we find that the merger increased audit quality for PwC relative to the ….e., offices in cities where both PW and CL had separate offices prior to the merger. Further, our findings suggest that although …

Focusing on the merger of Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand in 1998, we document increased audit quality (measured … by earnings quality of the clients) for the merged firm and other big-X auditors 1 during the post-merger period because … and 2) the value relevance of earnings has significantly increased. Furthermore, we find evidence that in the post-merger …

merger. The microstructure of the audit industry provides further insights—Non-Big4 audit firms reduce fees after the merger …

to mergers broadly, and to study several audit market dynamics. Unlike most merger settings that primarily allow … that the number of clients switching to the acquiring auditor increases following the merger, however we find that this is … evidence that the merger generates a sustained gain in market share or significant increase in aggregate fees. Our study is …