We examine the impact of auditor choice on debt pricing in firms' early public years when they are lesser known. Our evidence suggests that retaining a Big Six auditor, which can reduce debt monitoring costs by enhancing the credibility of financial statements, enables young firms to lower their...

We investigate how a high degree of audit market concentration and auditor reputation affect audit quality. Using audit adjustments to student loan loss provisions in government audits to construct a new measure for excessive audit conservatism, we show that an audit market monopoly leads to...