The scarcity of suitable proxies for asymmetric information has impeded empirical research from providing reliable evidence on whether information risk shapes equity pricing. In re-examining this unresolved question, we rely on firms' geographic distance from financial centers to gauge...

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...

For a sample comprised of 36,105 U.S. firm-year observations from 1985 to 2008, we find that firms located in more religious counties enjoy cheaper equity financing costs. This result is robust to a battery of sensitivity tests, including alternative assumptions and model specifications,...

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...