Auditing may be viewed as an arrangement for reducing inefficiencies arising from the fundamental market conflict between a seller who wants as high a price as possible and a buyer who wants to pay as low a price as possible. In more general terms, sellers prefer policies that boost the stock...

This paper aims to understand the determinants of lawsuits against auditors in securities class action litigation and the settlement pattern by auditors when the suit is not dismissed. The issues we consider are: (i) when are auditors named as defendants (ii) when do auditors choose to settle...

We analyze changes in audit fees and market shares of the BIG-4 audit firms (KPMG, PWC, D&T, E&Y) as compared with those of NB-4 (Non-Big 4) auditors in the period 2000-2011. Both relative fees and relative market shares (compared across BIG-4 and NB-4) auditors changed radically over this...