We examine whether and how the addition of mandatory paragraphs that highlight Key/Critical audit matters (KAMs) in the auditor's report affects users' information acquisition process using eye-tracking technology. We experimentally manipulate the presence of KAMs, their number (one or three...

We exploit a 2008 regulatory change in a Canadian province to investigate the association between engagement partner identification (EPI) and audit quality (AQ) and to illustrate the implications of control group design choices on this association. In contrast to prior studies, firms in our...

This paper analyzes the impact of Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB)-type regulatory oversight on audit quality, audit value, and the audit market under different legal systems. Conventional wisdom suggests that regulatory oversight may be just a simple addition to a legal system...

This paper derives the impacts of legal system characteristics and auditing standards on auditor behavior (audit quality), and analyzes the determination of optimal auditing standards under different legal regimes. Legal regimes are characterized by differences in the uncertainty concerning the...

In this paper, we first develop a model in which national legal environments play a crucial role in determining auditor effort and audit fees. Our model predicts that: (1) audit fees increase monotonically with the strength or strictness of a country’s legal liability regime; (2) given a legal...

We analyze how variation in federal level legal liability associated with judge ideology affects the likelihood of firms receiving going-concern modified audit opinions. With auditors trading off between Type I and Type II reporting errors, the threshold value (of client bankruptcy probability)...

The extant auditing literature documents an inconsistent relationship between audit fees and market concentration. In this paper, we argue that the impact of market concentration on audit fees is auditor and auditee specific. Based on the fact that the audit services to an auditee are generally...