This study examines the role of an individual auditor's cognitive ability in delivering high-quality audits. Our results from analyzing archival data from Sweden show that audit partners' IQ scores obtained from psychological tests are positively associated with going-concern audit reporting...

Today’s business world calls for leaders, and the auditing profession is no exception. Informed by emerging research on individual auditors, we investigate whether and how leadership ability, an attribute the auditing profession strongly emphasizes, is rewarded by the audit labor market. Using...

This paper analyzes the auditor choices for a sample of 2,333 predominantly small and mid-sized Finnish firms. Finland requires virtually all commercial enterprises to have a financial statement audit, but allows the smallest firms to choose from four types of audit firms: first tier...

This study examines whether the decision to voluntarily (i.e., without a statutory obligation) employ two audit firms to conduct a joint audit is related to audit quality. We use separate samples and empirical designs for public and privately held companies in Sweden, where a sufficient number...