Prior studies provide conflicting evidence on the reporting/disclosure quality of family firms. We provide unique insights by analyzing the pricing of audit engagements. Because financial reporting quality affects audit risk, which determines how auditors price engagements, we analyze audit fees...

The controversy over Chinese reverse mergers, which are directly listed on U.S. stock exchanges, has led to concerns about the audit quality of all U.S. listed Chinese companies. Because a sizeable number of foreign firms cross list their shares as American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) issued by...

We investigate whether companies strategically change accounting estimates to manipulate earnings, as some claim (“opportunism” hypothesis), or whether these modifications represent changes in the underlying fundamentals of financially troubled or risky companies updating their priors about...

Using abnormal audit fees to capture any added charges associated with incremental audit effort beyond the effort level needed under normal or expected circumstances, we find that the incremental audit effort is positively associated with goodwill to total assets. Additionally, when goodwill is...

We investigate how overlapping activities of bank regulators and supervisors and bank auditors influence banks' internal control quality, auditor-client contracting (audit fees and audit effort), and financial statement reliability. Using material weaknesses in internal controls as a proxy for...

We investigate the extent to which auditors of U.S. companies reduce fees on initial audit engagements (termed 'fee discounting'). We hypothesize that rivalry among sellers, in terms of client turnover and price competition, is more intense among smaller audit firms. The data support this...

We analyze how investors and information intermediaries perceive auditor tenure. Using earnings response coefficients from returns-earnings regressions as a proxy for investor perceptions of earnings quality, we document a positive association between investor perceptions of earnings quality and...

I examine the effect of various business strategies aimed at sustaining growth on quality and pricing of earnings. Earnings quality is predicted to be high when earnings growth results from sales increases, rather than cost reductions or income management of core and non-core operations, because...

According to accounting and auditing standards, external auditors and management must both independently monitor goodwill balance for any impairment. Therefore, goodwill impairment may contain valuable incremental information about the CEO's ability which the board can utilize for CEO retention...

We show that firms reporting sustained increases in both earnings and revenues have (1) higher quality earnings and (2) larger earnings response coefficients (ERCs) in comparison to firms reporting sustained increases in earnings alone. With respect to earnings quality, firms with...