The increase in disclosure about the persons conducting audits has led to a steep rise in research examining the role that individual audit partners play in audit outcomes. Although recent evidence suggests that individual audit partners explain a substantial portion of the variation in audit...

Although mandatory audit partner rotation has become prevalent worldwide, prior empirical research seldom considers how the successor partners are identified and the economic consequences of different rotation strategies. We examine the importance of internal networks to the selection of...

Although recent evidence suggests that individual audit partners explain a substantial portion of thevariation in audit quality proxies, much less is known about what determines an audit partner’s quality. Psychology and behavioral economics theories hold that an individual’s experiences can...

We examine the importance of Big Four audits in reducing agency costs evident in corporate debt maturity worldwide. Analyzing a large sample of public firms from 42 countries reveals that the fraction of long-term debt in firms' capital structures rises with the presence of a Big Four auditor,...

Relying on their history of legal infractions to measure individuals' risk tolerance, we examine the association between engagement partners' risk appetites and audit quality in the U.S. Criminology and economics research links criminal activity with enduring personality traits that capture an...