We propose a new input-based measure of financial statement comparability (FSC) that captures the degree of overlap in the financial statement line items reported by industry peers. FSC quantifies the extent to which peer firms have similar economic events and accounting transactions as...

We examine whether chief financial officers (CFOs) with accounting backgrounds (accountant CFOs) are associated with more conservative corporate outcomes. We find that, in high-growth industries, firms with accountant CFOs invest less in research and development and capital expenditures and are...

This paper investigates whether financially constrained firms use costly audit signals to facilitate their access to external financing. We document that when facing higher financial constraints, firms pay higher audit fees and have their audit opinion reports completed sooner. The higher audit...

This paper extends prior research on audit risk adjustment by examining the association of audit pricing with internal control problems disclosed under Sections 404 and 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. While studies of auditors' responses to internal control risk provide mixed evidence, it is...

Recent US reforms aimed at strengthening audit committees and their structure assign independent audit committees the responsibility to appoint, dismiss, and compensate auditors. We examine the association between audit committee characteristics and auditors' compensation and dismissals...

We examine whether shareholder votes can influence the audit committee and whether this influence is uniform across non-staggered and staggered boards. We find that through voting, shareholders can increase the efficacy of the audit committee, leading to improvements in audit committee...

We use new data to examine auditor response to negative media coverage of client environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices. This coverage can be indicative of an increased risk of material misstatement, which is an important assessment in client retention and pricing decisions....

This paper investigates remediation of Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 material weaknesses (MWs). Prior research examines full remediation of all MWs or broad categories thereof. We build on these studies by investigating remediation of specific types of MW, thus measuring progress in improving...