Download or read book Evidence on Audit Quality Differences Across Big N Audits written by Anwer S. Ahmed and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We provide evidence on the determinants of the choice of an industry specialist auditor and the effect of this choice on cost of equity for a sample of firms that are audited by Big N auditors. We find that firms with more severe conflicts of interest between managers and shareholders are more likely to use an industry specialist auditor. Furthermore, we document that firms that use an industry specialist auditor have a significantly lower cost of equity after controlling for firms' endogenous decision to use an industry specialist auditor.

Download or read book Big N Auditors and Audit Quality written by John (Xuefeng) Jiang and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 59 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whether Big N auditors provide higher quality audits than non-Big N auditors remains a debate. Big N acquisitions of non-Big N auditors provide a unique setting of exogenous shocks to the acquired non-Big N auditors' client firms because they have to change auditors. We identify a sample of 331 treatment firms that switched to Big N auditors due to such Big N acquisitions. Using a difference-in-differences research design, we find that after these treatment firms switch to Big N auditors, they have improved audit quality as measured through signed and absolute discretionary accruals, and financial statement divergence scores. In contrast, we find that mergers or acquisitions among non-Big N auditors have little impact on the audit quality of their affected client firms. Further cross-sectional analyses suggest the improvement in audit quality is likely due to Big N auditors' general competence rather than their industry-specific expertise. Finally, we find no significant stock market reactions in the treatment firms around the announcements of Big N acquisitions, indicating that the capital markets may not attach any premium to improved audit quality associated with hiring a Big N auditor.

Download or read book Evidence of Audit Quality Differences Among Big Five Auditors written by Yu Kit Fung and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Routledge Companion to Auditing written by David Hay and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-09-15 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Auditing has been a subject of some controversy, and there have been repeated attempts at reforming its practice globally. This comprehensive companion surveys the state of the discipline, including emerging and cutting-edge trends. It covers the most important and controversial issues, including auditing ethics, auditor independence, social and environmental accounting as well as the future of the field. This handbook is vital reading for legislators, regulators, professionals, commentators, students and researchers involved with auditing and accounting. The collection will also prove an ideal starting place for researchers from other fields looking to break into this vital subject.

Download or read book From Joint to Single Audits Audit Quality Differences and Auditor Pairings written by Claus Holm and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study analyses audit quality differences between audits by a single big audit firm and joint audits with either one or two big audit firms. We exploit the unique situation in Denmark beginning on 1 January 2005, at which time a long-standing mandatory joint audit system for listed companies was replaced by a voluntary joint audit system. First, we report the results of a survey of Danish CFOs' views on and their experiences with the choice of single or joint audits and their perceptions of audit quality. Second, based on data from the mandatory joint audit abolition year and the following two years, we test the audit quality differences using abnormal accruals. Most CFOs perceive that audit quality by a single big four audit firm is the same as it is in joint audits with either one or two big four audit firms. The results of our empirical analysis are in line with the perceptions. We find no evidence of audit quality differences between audits made by a single big four firm and those conducted by either of the two combinations of joint audits.

Download or read book Audit Quality written by Jonas Tritschler and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-10-31 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Arising from the author’s experience as a practicing CPA, this book is quite different from other research in this field, as it confronts the subject of audit quality from a pragmatic perspective. The first goal of Jonas Tritschler is to develop an audit quality metric on national audit firm level. Financial reporting errors, as detected by the German enforcement institutions during examinations, which subsequently are published in the German Federal Gazette by the involved companies, are the data basis for this measurement. Using the developed audit quality metric, the second goal of this study is to analyze audit quality differences of selected audit firms by comparing their deployed audit input factors such as employee’s competence (ratio of certified professionals to total audit staff), experience of employees (average tenure of employees in years) and client-specific experience (client fluctuation rate). Results indicate a correlation between audit quality according to the developed metric and the operationalized audit input factors mentioned above.

Download or read book Auditing Trust and Governance written by Reiner Quick and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-10-17 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this important new book, the European Auditing Research Network gives a timely appraisal of the regulatory environment for financial accounting and auditing in the wake of a series of high profile scandals involving major corporations.

Download or read book Evidence on the Relation between Audit and Earnings Quality Do Clients of Higher Quality Auditors Provide Better Financial Reporting written by and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2017-06-20 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject Business economics - Accounting and Taxes, grade: 1,3, , language: English, abstract: This paper studies the relation between audit and earnings quality. It examines whether firms audited by a Big 4 member engage in higher earnings management activities as proxied by the magnitude of discretionary and absolute accruals, as well as an income smoothing measure. The author predicts that large auditors have higher competencies and incentives to deliver a higher quality audit. Therefore, their clients are expected to reveal less sophisticated earnings management and thus higher earnings quality. The results do not support this relation. Since standardsetters have been concerned about managers’ use of discretion to manage earnings in their financial reports, an increasing amount of empirical research was conducted to address this issue, additionally to regulation. While independent auditors (aim to) assure that these statements are in accordance with legal compliance, the actual audit quality can be grasped as the contingency that the auditor exposes and discloses an anomaly in their clients’ financial reports. Whereas numerous audit scandals threaten the trustworthiness of well-known large auditors, there is various research revealing that Big N audited firms are supposed to disclose financial reports of higher quality. Supplementing misguiding accrual accounting practices in this regard, this study also addresses another proxy for earnings management: income smoothing. Burgstahler and Dichev (1997) explain corporate income smoothing with the fact that managers avoid revealing earning decreases and losses to diminish costs arising from transactions with stakeholders. Similarly, Degeorge, Patel and Zeckhauser (1999) show that managers smooth earnings to meet analysts’ forecasts. On the other hand there are various contrary studies. DeFond and Jimbalvo (1993) found that auditor-client disagreements resulting from earnings management, are more present in Big 4 audited firms. They explain this with the properties of the “common” Big 4 clients. For the reason of the ambiguous results, it is interesting to study the effects and compare them with prior evidence to answer the question whether Big 4 auditors deliver “higher” quality in terms of a “better” financial reporting. The terms are operationalized using a dis-cretionary accruals and income smoothing measure and analyzed for (non-)Big 4 audited UK-firms in the period 2005-2011.

Download or read book Gender Differences in Audit Quality written by Chen-lung Chin and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prior studies show that, in general, women are more risk averse and act more ethically than men. The objective of this paper is to examine the effects of gender on audit quality, as measured by discretionary accruals and the likelihood of issuing a going concern opinion. Unlike prior research, this paper uses a unique sample of listed firms in Taiwan, where audit reports must be audited and certified in the name of two signing auditors as well as in the name of an audit firm. The availability of auditors' gender data provides us with a unique setting to address this issue. The results show that clients have lower discretionary accruals when audited by female signing auditors, regardless of lead or concurring auditors. Also, clients have the least discretionary accruals when both lead and concurring auditors are female. Finally, this study also shows that variance in accruals increases monotonically with the number of male auditors. As an alternative measure of audit quality, we also examine and find that female auditors are more likely to issue going concern audit opinions than male auditors. However, we further find that the higher tendency of female auditors to issue a going concern opinion is driven mainly by Big 4 firms. Further analyses indicate that there is no difference in industry expertise between female and male audit partners; thus, our results are not driven by the industry expertise. Finally, we find that although female auditors self select quot;saferquot; clients, our primary conclusion remain unchanged after controlling for clients' financial risk. Together these results provide consistent evidence that the gender of signing auditors is what appears to matter in terms of differential audit quality among accounting firms, at least with respect to discretionary accruals and the likelihood of issuing a going concern opinion.

Download or read book Auditor Type and Audit Quality Differences in Nonprofit Healthcare Organizations written by Dennis M. López and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this paper is to explore audit quality in nonprofit healthcare organizations by investigating differences in audit report outcomes. Specifically, we examine the relationship between auditor type and auditor-disclosed internal control exceptions in Circular A-133 audits of U.S. nonprofit healthcare organizations. Our findings indicate audits of nonprofit healthcare organizations conducted by the Big Four CPA firms carry a lower likelihood of disclosing internal control exceptions (i.e., reportable conditions and material weaknesses) than are audits conducted by smaller CPA firms. This challenges the general contention from prior studies that the Big Four firms are better audit quality providers and indicates that the alleged superiority of Big Four firms in terms of audit quality may not be generalizable to all industry sectors.

Download or read book Demand for Audit Quality in Small Private Firms written by Mervi Niskanen and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study investigates the interaction between audit quality and agency costs, when managerial ownership is used as a proxy for agency costs. The literature on audit quality suggests that firms with high agency costs are more likely to demand audit quality. Our database enables us to compare the demand for audit quality with two different measures; demand for Big 4 auditors and certified auditors with strict professional requirements. The results show that an increase in managerial ownership decreases the likelihood that the firm will engage a Big 4 auditor but it does not have an impact on the demand for certified auditors. Our findings also support previous studies that suggest a nonlinear connection between managerial ownership and demand for audit quality in terms of Big 4 audits. This suggests that audits by Big 4 audit firms are used in informationally opaque private firms to overcome agency costs. We also find that the probability of choosing a Big 4 auditor increases with an increase in firm size and the presence of foreign sales. An increase in leverage increases the likelihood that the firm will engage a Big 4 auditor only in the larger firms and in firms, in which management ownership is above 50%.

Download or read book The Influence of the Sarbanes Oxley Act on Audit Quality written by Michele M. McGowan and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study uses an institutional theory perspective to examine whether significant changes to the audit work and engagement practices required under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) lead to improved audit quality in nonprofit hospitals. Unlike their for-profit counterparts, nonprofit organizations have been subject to audits of internal controls over financial reporting and program compliance for decades under Circular A-133 of the Single Audit Act of 1984, as amended. Circular A-133 audits represent the primary accountability tool over the billions of grant dollars awarded annually by the federal government. Despite the enormity of these awards and the substantial informational effect of the audit reports, prior empirical research suggests that the quality of these audits is problematic. Using the archival data of nonprofit hospital Circular A-133 audits and related hand-collected financial data from IRS Form 990s, bivariate and multivariate analyses are conducted on a cross-sectional sample of 875 audits for 141 nonprofit hospitals with audits during both pre-SOX (2001-2004) and post-SOX (2008-2011) periods. Audit quality is inferred from discretionary accruals (Modified Jones model) and auditor-reported internal control deficiencies (reportable conditions and material weaknesses). The results indicate support for improved audit quality from the pre- to the post-SOX period for all measures of audit quality. The results are different for the measures of audit quality used to examine the association between audit firm size and audit quality. Non-Big 4 audit firms experienced a significant improvement in audit quality when discretionary accruals are used as a proxy for audit quality. Conversely, Big 4 audit firms experienced a significant improvement in audit quality when internal control deficiencies are proxies for audit quality. In the post-SOX period audit firms provide approximately the same level of audit quality regardless of firm size when discretionary accruals or material weaknesses are the proxy for audit quality. When reportable conditions are the proxy, non-Big 4 firms have higher audit quality than Big 4 firms post-SOX. Client characteristics, specifically hospital size and the interaction of leverage and risk, are attributable to differences in post-SOX audit quality. Finally, the study fails to support the hypothesis that large audit firms self-select low risk clients.

Download or read book Improving Healthcare Quality in Europe Characteristics Effectiveness and Implementation of Different Strategies written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2019-10-17 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume, developed by the Observatory together with OECD, provides an overall conceptual framework for understanding and applying strategies aimed at improving quality of care. Crucially, it summarizes available evidence on different quality strategies and provides recommendations for their implementation. This book is intended to help policy-makers to understand concepts of quality and to support them to evaluate single strategies and combinations of strategies.

Download or read book Audit Quality and Risk Differences Among Auditors written by Lisa Tilis and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 37 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study tests for differences in audit quality among Big Auditors and between Big Auditors and Small Auditors. The analysis is conducted using four separate quot;auditor erasquot; during the period from January 1980 through December 2003, with each era reflecting the number of Big Auditors in the industry. We begin by explicitly testing the validity of pooling across Big Auditors and time periods using an industry adjusted measure of the variance of earnings quality. These tests, as a proxy for audit quality, show important differences in quality among Big Auditors and across eras. Based on the recognition of these important differences, intercept tests of auditor based asset portfolios, using a three factor asset pricing model, are used to assess systematic risk differences. Results show that there was only one era in which significant asset pricing effects are seen between Big and Small Auditors, and virtually no differences among Big Auditors, despite significant differences in quality. These results indicate the need for reassessment of arbitrary quality distinctions between Big and Small Auditors made in early research.

Download or read book Encyclopedia of Psychology written by Alan E. Kazdin and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume covers Encylopedia of Psychology entries from Taine, Hippolyte to Zubin, Joseph. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved)

Download or read book Demand for Audit Quality in Private Firms written by Mervi Niskanen and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study investigates whether managerial ownership related agency costs are associated with the demand for audit quality in a sample of small private firms. The literature on audit quality suggests that firms with high agency costs are more likely to demand audit quality. Our database enables us to compare the demand for audit quality with three different measures; Demand for Big 4 auditors and two types of certified auditors with strict professional requirements. The results show that an increase in managerial ownership decreases the likelihood that the firm will engage a Big 4 auditor or a KHT certified auditor but it does not have an impact on the demand for lower level certified auditors. Our findings also support previous studies that suggest a nonlinear connection between managerial ownership and the demand for audit quality in terms of Big 4 audits. This suggests that higher quality audits by Big 4 audit firms are used to overcome agency costs induced by information asymmetries between shareholders and managers. An increase in leverage, on the other hand, increases the likelihood that the firm will engage a lower level certified auditor as opposed to a noncertified auditor.

Download or read book Auditor Size and Audit Quality Revisited written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The objective of this thesis is to revisit the notion of audit quality and investigate how it is related to auditor size and the structure of the auditing industry. Specifically, I propose a model of audit firm competition where both audit quality and auditor size are endogenous and predict how market characteristics, namely market size and investor protection regime, affect the structure of the auditing industry and differences between Big-4 and Non-Big-4 audit quality and fees. I show that Big-4 audit firms compete mostly on audit value (i.e., quality and price) through investments in audit technology, the level of which is increasing in both market size and investor protection. Consistent with my predictions, empirical results for the U.S. audit market, where investor protection is held constant across local markets, confirm that the audit industry is characterised as a natural oligopoly dominated by the higher quality Big-4 audit firms. More importantly, I find that Big-4 audit value is increasing in market size. In particular, Big-4 audit quality, relative to Non-Big-4 audits is constant in market size while Big-4 audit fee premium is decreasing in market size. I also present detailed hypotheses adapted to a cross-country setting to empirically evaluate the impact of investor protection regimes on characteristics of the audit industry and the audit product. Although I leave to future research actual empirical testing, preliminary evidence reviewed from other studies generally supports my hypotheses. My thesis has direct policy implications as it provides key insights about the audit industry, how audit firms compete and how the industry evolves. Taken together, my results imply that the audit industry is naturally concentrated yet remains overall competitive. That is, Big-4 audit quality and fees are not adversely affected, thus far, by the high level of auditor concentration and Big-4 market power. Accordingly, recent concerns about high auditor concentration,