Audits of internal control over financial reporting (ICFR) are typically “integrated” with the audit of the financial statements (FS)— both audits are conducted by the same audit firm, which designs procedures to satisfy the objectives of both audits simultaneously. A common assumption is...

We examine how disclosing information about audit quality affects auditors' effort and investors' investment efficiency. In our setting, the usefulness of audited financial reports for investors depends on both the quality of the underlying financial reporting (e.g., as embodied by GAAP) and the...

This study examines whether auditor industry specialization, measured using the auditor's within-industry market share, improves audit quality and results in a fee premium. After matching clients of specialist and non-specialist auditors on a number of dimensions, as well as only on industry and...

This study examines whether differences in proxies for audit-quality between Big 4 and non-Big 4 audit firms could be a reflection of their respective clients' characteristics. In our analyses, we use three audit-quality proxies: discretionary accruals, the ex ante cost of equity capital, and...