We propose that auditor-provided tax services (tax NAS) improve internal control quality by accelerating audit firm awareness of transactions material to the financial statements. Using data from 2004 to 2012, we find robust evidence that companies purchasing tax NAS are significantly less...

Accounting estimates are susceptible to managerial errors and bias, thereby generating audit risk. Quantifying and understanding the determinants and consequences of auditors’ influence on clients’ accounting estimates is therefore important. Using a novel econometric technique, we estimate...

We use a unique setting of an auditor's acquisition of another auditor to provide new insight into customer responses to mergers broadly, and to study several audit market dynamics. Unlike most merger settings that primarily allow examination of the merging firms and their rivals, this setting...

We argue that the association between auditor industry specialization and audit quality depends on how long the auditor has been a specialist. We measure audit quality using absolute discretionary accruals, income-increasing discretionary accruals, and book-tax differences. Our results, based on...

Using several audit quality measures, Minutti-Meza (2013, MM) argues that controlling for client characteristics through matching eliminates the association between auditor industry specialization and audit quality. Gaver and Utke (2019, GU) argue that this result is unstable across matching...

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...