Audit partner workload, gender and audit quality

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yosra Mnif ◽  
Imen Cherif
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Discretionary Accruals ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Audit Firms ◽  
Client Firm ◽  
Lower Magnitude

PurposeThe paper aims to investigate the relation between the auditor's workload (LogAPW) and audit quality. Further, it explores whether the presence of a female audit partner (hereafter FEM) influences the LogAPW effect on audit quality.Design/methodology/approachA dataset of 1,629 firm-year observations from 181 companies listed in the NASDAQ OMX Stockholm for the years 2010–2018 has been analyzed. The testable hypotheses have been tested using least squares regressions clustered at the Swedish public-listed companies (client-firm) level.FindingsThe research findings first indicate that overburdened audit partners (APS) are associated with lower-quality audits, consistent with the “busyness hypothesis.” Nevertheless, the adverse association turns to be positive for FEMs, supporting the thesis that FEMs have more tendency, as compared to their male counterparts, to preserve their partnership's position in the public-audit firms. Collectively, these results seem sound, as the results hold unchanged after controlling for the endogeneity concerns and provide the same conclusion for a host of additional measures for both the client-firms' discretionary accruals and the LogAPW.Research limitations/implicationsEven though a lower magnitude of the client-firms' discretionary accruals corresponds to a lower-opportunistic behavior of managers, the research is limited to by which lower values of earnings management reflect a better-quality financial reporting. Given that the empirical analysis has been confined to the Swedish Corporation, the regression results might not be generalizable for other countries with different contextual features.Practical implicationsThe study might participate to the ongoing debate about the introduction of more women to the public-audit firms' elite positions (e.g. partnership) by providing evidence for the favorable female auditor effect on the quality of the client-firms' financial reporting.Originality/valueThe regression results provide a preliminary evidence on how does the presence of a FEM mitigate the inverse relation between the LogAPW and audit quality, which is an issue that has not been examined before.

Auditor rotations and audit quality

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 639-660 ◽  
Author(s):  
Devi Sulistyo Kalanjati ◽  
Damai Nasution ◽  
Karin Jonnergård ◽  
Soegeng Sutedjo
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Stock Exchange ◽  
Multivariate Regression Analysis ◽  
Cumulative Number ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Audit Firm ◽  
Audit Firms ◽  
Using Data

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between audit rotation – at the audit partner and audit firm level – and audit quality. As mentioned in the literature, audit rotation has several benefits, and one of them is it can bring a fresh look to audit tasks and subsequently improve audit quality. Moreover, audit itself can help a client to improve its financial reporting. However, ineffective communication between predecessor and successor audit partners or audit firms, and pseudo-rotation can hamper that benefit. Design/methodology/approach This study uses multivariate regression analysis to test its hypotheses. Using data from companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange, the sample consists of 688 company-year observations covering the period 2003–2016. Findings This study finds that the cumulative number of audit partner rotations is positively associated with audit quality, indicating that rotations at the audit partner level will enhance audit quality. Conversely, it finds that the cumulative number of audit firm rotations is negatively associated with audit quality. Practical implications The study’s findings may assist regulators in crafting standards regarding audit rotation. As the findings show, audit partner rotation will improve audit quality, but the audit firm rotation will decrease audit quality. As this study tries to explain the decreasing audit quality from audit firm rotation could be a consequence of ineffective communication or pseudo audit firm rotation. Regulators should try to tackle these problems. Originality/value Instead of using tenure as a proxy for a rotation, this study creates a new proxy named the cumulative number of audit partner and audit firm rotations to provide evidence on the benefits of audit rotation.

The impact of audit quality on earnings management and cost of equity capital: evidence from a developing market

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Le ◽  
Paula Hearn Moore
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Discretionary Accruals ◽  
Equity Capital ◽  
Cost Of Equity Capital ◽  
Cost Of Equity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Big 4 ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

Purpose This study aims to examine the effects of audit quality on earnings management and cost of equity capital (COE) considering the impact of two owner types: government ownership and foreign ownership. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a panel data set of 236 Vietnamese firms covering the period 2007 to 2017. Because the two main dependent variables of the COE capital and the absolute value of discretionary accruals receive fractional values between zero and one, the paper uses the generalised linear model (GLM) with a logit link and the binomial family in regression analyses. The paper uses numerous audit quality measures, including hiring Big 4 auditors or the industry-leading Big 4 auditor, changing from non-Big 4 auditors to Big 4 auditors or the industry-leading Big 4 auditor, and the length of Big 4 auditor tenure. Big 4 companies include KPMG, Deloitte, EY and PwC, whereas the non-big 4 are the other audit companies. Findings The study finds a negative relationship between audit quality and both the COE capital and income-increasing discretionary accruals. The effects of audit quality on discretionary accruals and the COE capital depend on the ownership levels of two important shareholders: the government and foreign investors. Foreign ownership is negatively associated with discretionary accruals; however, the effect is more pronounced in the sub-sample of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), the firms where the government owns 50% or more equity, than in the sub-sample of Non-SOEs. Originality/value To the best of the knowledge, no prior similar study exists that used the GLM with a logit link and the binomial family regression. Global investors may be interested in understanding how unique institutional settings and capital markets of each country impact the financial reporting quality and cost of capital. Further, policymakers of developing markets may have incentives to improve the quality of financial reporting and reduce the cost of capital which should result in attracting more foreign investments.

Timing of auditor terminations and client firm risk

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 650-672
Author(s):  
Young-Won Her ◽  
Jennifer Howard ◽  
Myungsoo Son
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Internal Control ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Operating Performance ◽  
Firm Risk ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Auditor Resignation ◽  
Client Firm ◽  
Auditor Switches ◽  
Available Information

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine whether the timing of auditor terminations signals the riskiness of client firms. Design/methodology/approach This empirical study uses a sample of auditor switches during 2003-2014 to conduct univariate tests and multivariate regression analyses. Auditor switches occurring after the audit report date but before the shareholders’ meeting are classified as “planned” terminations and auditor switches that occur outside of this window are classified as “abrupt” terminations. Findings First, abrupt terminations are more strongly related to client risk factors than planned terminations. Second, relative to planned terminations, abrupt terminations are more likely to result from an auditor resignation rather than a client dismissal. Third, abrupt termination firms are more likely to have internal control weaknesses and experience delistings in the following year. Future operating performance is also worse after an abrupt termination. Finally, auditors and investors view abrupt terminations as riskier than planned terminations. Practical implications As the timing of the auditor termination is publicly available information, it can provide an important signal of deteriorating financial performance to shareholders and potential investors. Abrupt terminations could be costly to shareholders because those firms likely have lower quality financial reporting (due to internal control weakness) and deterioration of future operating performance. Originality/value While concurrent studies investigate the relation between the timing of new auditor appointment and audit quality, this is the first study to document the relation between the timing of auditor termination and the riskiness of client firms.

Audit quality following the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s operation

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 927-946
Author(s):  
She-Chih Chiu ◽  
Chin-Chen Chien ◽  
Hsuan-Chu Lin
Keyword(s):  
Audit Quality ◽  
Univariate Analysis ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Discretionary Accruals ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Audit Firms ◽  
Public Company ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Big Four

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which the transition from self-regulation to heteronomy has changed the gap in audit quality between Big Four and non-Big Four auditors. Design/methodology/approach This study analyzes publicly held companies in the USA between 1999 and 2012 using univariate analysis, multivariate analysis and quantile regression analysis. Audit quality is measured with discretionary accruals. Findings This study shows an insignificant difference in audit quality between the clients of Big Four and non-Big Four auditors after Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (hereafter, PCAOB) began its operations. In the analysis of the effects of PCAOB inspections on the audit quality of audit firms that are inspected annually and triennially, the findings show that the inspections have more positive effects when carried out annually. This suggests that the frequency of inspection is positively associated with audit quality. Overall, these results provide evidence that recent improvements in audit quality have been caused by changes in regulatory standards. Originality/value The paper provides three major original contributions. First, the authors add to the literature on audit quality by further demonstrating a reduced gap in audit quality between Big Four and non-Big Four audit firms due to heteronomy. Secondly, this study contributes to the debate as to whether independent inspections on audit firms are beneficial or not and suggests that the PCAOB inspections help increase audit quality. Finally, the results of this work contribute to the growing literature examining discretionary accruals.

Do government-experienced auditors reduce audit quality?

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 722-748
Author(s):  
Murat Ocak ◽  
Gökberk Can
Keyword(s):  
Audit Quality ◽  
Data Access ◽  
Discretionary Accruals ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Audit Firm ◽  
Audit Firms ◽  
Government Experience ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Independent Audit

Purpose Recent studies regarding auditor experience generally focus on auditor overall experience in accounting, auditing, finance and related fields (Hardies et al., 2014), auditor sector and domain experience (Bedard and Biggs, 1991; Hammersley, 2006), auditor experience as CPA (Ye et al., 2014; Sonu et al., 2016) or big N experience (Chi and Huang, 2005; Gul et al., 2013; Zimmerman, 2016) or auditors’ international working experience (Chen et al., 2017). But there is little attention paid to where auditors obtained their experience from? And how do auditors with government experience affect audit quality (AQ)? This paper aims to present the effect of auditors with government experience on AQ. Design/methodology/approach The authors used Turkish publicly traded firms in Borsa Istanbul between the year 2008 and 2015 to test the hypothesis. The sample comprises 1,067 observations and eight years. Two main proxies of government experience are used in this paper. The first proxy is auditor’s government experience in the past. The second proxy is the continuous variable which is “the logarithmic value of the number of years of government experience”. Further, auditor overall experience in auditing, accounting, finance and other related fields are also used as a control variable. Audit reporting aggressiveness, audit reporting lag and discretionary accruals are used as proxies of AQ. Besides this, the authors adopted the model to estimate the probability of selecting a government-experienced auditor, and they presented the regression results with the addition of inverse Mills ratio. Findings The main findings are consistent with conjecture. Government-experienced auditors do not enhance AQ. They are aggressive, and they complete audit work slowly and they cannot detect discretionary accruals effectively. Spending more time in a government agency makes them more aggressive and slow, and they do not detect earnings management practices. The Heckman estimation results regarding the variable of interest are also consistent with the main estimation results. In addition, the authors found in predicting government-experienced auditor choice that family firms, domestic firms and firms that reported losses (larger firms, older firms) are more (less) likely to choose government-experienced auditors. Research limitations/implications This study has some limitations. The authors used a small sample to test the impact of government-experienced auditors on AQ because of data access problems. Much data used in this study were collected manually. Earnings quality was calculated using only discretionary accruals. Real activities manipulation was not used as the proxy of AQ in this paper. The findings from emerging markets might not generalize to the developed countries because the Turkish audit market is developing compared to Continental Europe or USA. Practical implications The findings are considered for independent audit firms. Audit firms may employ new graduates and train them to offer more qualified audit work for their clients. The results do not mean that government-experienced auditors should not work in an audit firm, or that they should not establish an audit firm. It is clear that government-experienced auditors provide low AQ in terms of audit reporting aggressiveness, audit report lag and discretionary accruals. But as they operate more in the independent audit sector, they will become successful and provide qualified audit work. One other thing we can say is that it is perhaps better for government-experienced auditors to work in the tax department of independent audit firms. Originality/value This paper tries to fill the gap in the literature regarding the effect of auditor experience on AQ and concentrates on a different type of experience: Auditors with government experience.

The association between PCAOB-identified audit deficiencies and small audit firms’ characteristics

2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (8) ◽  
pp. 717-735 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fei Kang ◽  
Magdy Farag ◽  
Robert Hurt ◽  
Cheryl Wyrick
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Limited Liability ◽  
Organization Structure ◽  
Firm Characteristics ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Negatively Associated ◽  
Audit Firm ◽  
Audit Firms

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the association between certain audit firm characteristics and the number of Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB)-identified audit deficiencies. Design/methodology/approach – Using a hand-collected sample of PCAOB inspection reports for small audit firms with 100 or less issuer clients from 2007 through 2010, an ordinary least squares model is applied by regressing the number of deficiencies on a set of audit firm characteristics. Findings – Results show that the number of PCAOB-identified audit deficiencies is positively associated with the number of issuer clients and negatively associated with the number of branch offices, the human capital leverage and the organization structure as Limited Liability Partnership firms. Additional analysis also shows that the PCAOB inspection length is positively associated with the number of deficiencies, the number of branch offices and the number of issuer clients, but negatively associated with the organization structure as limited liability company firms. Moreover, the PCAOB inspection lag is positively associated with the number of deficiencies and the number of issuer clients. Research limitations/implications – Results of this study cannot be generalized beyond public accounting firms with 100 or fewer issuer clients. In addition, there is a possibility that other measurements of firm-level characteristics that impact the number of PCAOB-identified audit deficiencies were not captured in the study. Practical implications – This study explains the association between audit firm characteristics and PCAOB-identified audit deficiencies. Our results caution small audit firms about not having enough professional staff, low human capital leverage and serving too many issuer clients, as those factors may potentially impair audit quality. Originality/value – This study helps to explain the relationship between audit deficiencies and controllable, measurable firm-level characteristics. It is, therefore, differentiated from previous studies, most of which were focused on PCAOB-identified audit deficiencies as measures of audit quality and stakeholder reactions to PCAOB reports.

scholarly journals Auditor gender, experience and reporting in nonprofit organizations

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 550-577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Mie Reheul ◽  
Tom Van Caneghem ◽  
Machteld Van den Bogaerd ◽  
Sandra Verbruggen
Keyword(s):  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
The Public ◽  
Audit Market ◽  
Audit Firms ◽  
Audit Opinions ◽  
Auditor Characteristics

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between individual auditor characteristics (gender, experience and sector expertise) and audit opinions in Belgian non-profit organizations (NPOs). The purpose is to identify auditor characteristics that imply a better assurance of financial statement (FS) quality. FS quality is essential to enhance financial accountability toward the resource providers of NPOs and the public at large. Design/methodology/approach Multinomial regressions are conducted on a data set of Belgian NPOs. Propensity score matching is used to control for potential self-selection bias. Findings Auditors with sector expertise are found to provide better assurance than their non-sector-expert counterparts. The former are more likely to disclose FS errors and uncertainties in their audit report. Originality/value This study contributes to the auditing literature by focusing on an understudied audit market, namely, the non-profit audit market. The number of non-profit studies that investigate determinant of audit quality is very scarce, and none of them explores the determinants of audit opinions. Moreover, these studies ignore individual auditor characteristics as determinants of audit quality. The findings of this study provide meaningful information for several actors in the NP field and for audit firms.

scholarly journals If auditors are like Belgian beers, which style would you prefer?

2016 ◽  
Vol 90 (9) ◽  
pp. 341-347
Author(s):  
Herman van Brenk ◽  
Liesbeth Bruynseels
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Black Box ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Audit Firm ◽  
Internal Working ◽  
Audit Firms ◽  
Auditing Standards ◽  
Zoom In ◽  
Audit Team

Recent research by Francis, Pinnuck, and Watanabe (2014) has shown that financial reporting outcomes are influenced by the audit firm’s unique audit style. They argue that audit firm styles are driven by their “unique set of internal working rules that guide the auditor’s application of accounting and auditing standards” (Francis, Pinnuck & Watanabe, 2014). In our discussion, we zoom in on this study and call for further research on the factors that determine audit styles. Specifically, we emphasize the importance of extending this research from the audit firm level to the level of the audit office, audit team, and individual auditor. We conclude with the notion that intense collaboration between audit firms and academia is instrumental in opening the black box of audit styles to extend our knowledge on the root causes and drivers of audit quality.

scholarly journals How to regain public trust in audit firms? The case of the Financial Reporting Council

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Khaled Eldaly ◽  
Magdy Abdel-Kader
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
Audit Committees ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Audit Market ◽  
Big 4 ◽  
Audit Firms ◽  
The Uk

Purpose This study aims to provide a better understanding of the role of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), as the unified regulator of the audit profession in the UK, in restoring public trust in audit profession in the UK. It further analyses the views of partners in the Big 4 audit firms on this role. Design/methodology/approach The research data were gathered by conducting 17 semi-structured interviews with the top management of FRC’s members and executive partners of the Big 4 firms in the UK. The interviews were complemented by analysing data available on the web pages of the Big 4 firms and published reports related to the FRC’s projects. Findings This study identified three main strategies followed by the FRC to promote the trust and enhance the choice of auditors in the UK audit market. These strategies are improving the audit quality, increasing the transparency of the big audit firms and reducing the barriers to compete in the big audit market. Practical implications An analysis of the FRC’s efforts may help auditors to identify what they are expected to do to improve the reliability of information provided in the capital market. Audit committees can get a better understanding of the criteria that they need to improve the process of auditors’ choice. Auditors will also better understand how and why current audit regulations have been issued. This may improve their satisfaction with regulations and standards, and their efficient implementation. Furthermore, it is believed that audit regulators need to get feedback additional to the formal feedback they receive to improve their performance and current regulations. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature by discussing the auditors’ criticism to the Audit Inspection Unit’s inspectors and the way the inspectors defend themselves. The findings suggest that partners of the Big 4 believe that the FRC’s projects effectively participate in improving the audit quality, as well as providing wider information about the audit firms to the public. However, different actions need to be taken to enhance the choice of auditors and increase the number of big audit firms that compete in the market.

Further Evidence on the Effect of Regulation on the Exit of Small Auditors from the Audit Market and Resulting Audit Quality

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 95-115
Author(s):  
Neil L. Fargher ◽  
Alicia Jiang ◽  
Yangxin Yu
Keyword(s):  
Audit Quality ◽  
Financial Statements ◽  
Discretionary Accruals ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
The Public ◽  
Audit Market ◽  
Audit Firms ◽  
Jel Classifications

SUMMARY Following the introduction of SOX in 2002 and the introduction of PCAOB inspections starting from 2003, DeFond and Lennox (2011) found that a large number of small auditors exited the SEC client audit market during the 2002–2004 period and that these exiting auditors were of lower quality relative to non-exiting auditors. This paper seeks to verify whether SOX and the introduction of PCAOB inspections improved audit quality through incentivizing small auditors providing lower audit quality to exit the market. Using client discretionary accruals and the likelihood of the clients restating financial statements as proxies for audit quality, we do not find that the small auditors that exited the market for SEC client audits were of lower quality than successor small audit firms that did not exit the market. JEL Classifications: G18; L51. Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text.

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