We start from the observation that auditors have discretion to order their tasks and investigate whether auditors use their task discretion to prioritize easy over difficult tasks and to reduce more effort in difficult tasks. Drawing on Conservation of Resources theory, which states that humans...

This paper reports the results of four laboratory experiments designed to examine whether an appropriate legal system, which is a combination of legal regime (strict vs. negligence) and damage apportionment rule (joint-and-several vs. proportionate), may serve as an effective mechanism to...

We provide evidence on the long standing concern on auditor conflicts of interest from providing non-audit services (NAS) to audit clients by using rarely explored NAS fee data from 1978-80 Using this earlier setting, we find cross-sectional evidence of improved earnings quality when auditors...

This study examines the decisions of firms to voluntarily disclose tax fees paid to their external auditors. Although the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began requiring public companies to disclose fees paid to auditors in 2000, separate disclosure of tax service fees as a component of...

The purpose of this study is to explore some of the challenges constraining public sector audit from acting as an effective accountability tool in PPP arrangements in Nigeria and to proffer solutions. This is a conceptual paper and relies on extensive review of literature. We find, among others,...

Absent regulatory requirements, 64% of small private commercial banks voluntarily procured an independent audit in our dataset. Hence, it can be argued that an independent audit may have a perceived value. In our study, we examine whether the decision to procure an audit is systematic. First, we...

As a result of gradual shifts in the market for audit services, we expect financially stressed public companies to be increasingly audited by regional firms, who, in turn, will be increasingly likely to issue going concern reports to their financially stressed public companies. Our expectations...

We evaluate whether, and under what circumstances, corporate tax aggressiveness influences audit pricing. Using a compound measure of two long-run effective tax rates, we find that tax aggressive firms pay higher fees for external audit services after controlling for factors related to earnings...

With the creation of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), audit firm oversight shifted away from self-regulation to independent regulation. The inspections program is the central feature of the PCAOB. We examine whether PCAOB inspections are able to distinguish actual audit...

Audit regulators around the world have expressed concern over market dominance by Big 4 accounting firms and the potential adverse effect it may have on the quality of audited financial statements. We use cross-country variation in the audit market structure of 42 countries to examine two...