Francis and Yu (2009) and Choi, Kim, Kim, and Zang (2010) report evidence that Big 4 audits are of higher quality when the engagement office is of larger size: specifically, client earnings quality is higher and auditors in larger offices are more likely to issue going concern audit reports. We...

Audit reports in China record the names of two signing auditors. Through co-signed audit reports, we observe auditor groups within large Chinese accounting firms. We find that these auditor groups are very stable over time. They act like autonomous units within accounting firms. They control...

This paper investigates why a firm would hire an auditor far away from its corporate headquarter. Using a sample from the Audit Analytics database, we show that 75% of the firms hire a Big 4 auditor less than 33 miles away from their headquarters, and the median distance is only 14 miles. For...

Using a dataset constructed from the EDGAR database, this study investigates whether the timing of filing 10-Ks contains useful information to investors. We argue and find that firms with better earnings news are more likely to file their 10-Ks early. We further show that firms experience...

Big 6 market shares based on aggregate national data have been used in prior research to infer market leadership and industry expertise, and to differentiate Big 6 accounting firms from one another. In this study it is demonstrated that further differences exist with respect to city-specific...

Between 1982 and 1987, the Australian audit market experienced an increase in price competition resulting from changes in professional rules governing advertising and marketing practices as well as the introduction of widespread audit tendering. Because these changes are generally assumed to...

Prior research emphasizes the centrality of audit offices in understanding auditing practices, and documents significant inter-office variation in audit outcomes based on industry expertise and office size. Our study examines how two city-specific labor characteristics also affect audit offices...

We find that non-Big 4 audit offices with greater awareness of SEC enforcement are more likely to issue first-time going concern reports to distressed clients; where SEC “awareness” is measured using (1) audit office proximity to SEC regional offices, and (2) proximity to specific SEC...

Our study reports evidence on the dynamic effects of client switches on auditor reputations and fee premia. Offices of large accounting firms that lose (gain) major industry clients experience a reputation shock leading to more same-industry client losses (gains) over the next two years. There...