The new PCAOB guidelines make it mandatory for listed companies to identify the audit partner in charge of an audit, thus increasing the focus on the role of an individual audit partner in providing a high-quality audit. Motivated by the PCAOB’s commitment to post-implementation review of its...

Prior research suggests that characteristics of audit partners are important drivers of audit quality. However, evidence on whether partner industry expertise improves audit quality is mixed. Using a large dataset of audit partners in India, we employ new partner-level measures of industry...