We examine the impact of informal cultural attributes, such as generalized trust and civic cooperation in a society, on the presence of Big N auditors and audit fees in country-specific audit markets. On one hand, because societies with higher trust and civic cooperation are associated with low...

We investigate how the strictness of a requirement to consult on potential client fraud affects auditors' propensity to consult with firm experts. We consider two specific forms of guidance about fraud consultations: (1) strict, i.e., mandatory and binding; and (2) lenient, i.e., advisory and...

Economic incentives are fundamental for understanding auditor behavior. In this paper, we investigate the association between the extent of partners' fee-based compensation, partners' observable net wealth, and audit quality. Using a sample of Belgian Big 4 audit firms and their predominantly...

We examine auditor switching conditional on the compatibility of clients and their auditors using a unique text-based measure of similarity of financial disclosures. We find clustering of clients within an audit firm based on this measure. We find that clients with the lowest similarity scores...

In this paper we argue that audit firms rationally consider the potential reactions of their rivals when deciding how fiercely to compete in a given market. Based on prior literature in the field of industrial organization (Bernheim and Whinston [1990]), we hypothesize that competing with the...

Professional skepticism is clearly an important and timely topic in the practice and regulation of auditing. In this paper, we apply Bandura's self-efficacy construct within Social Cognitive Theory to auditor efficacy and skeptical action in an audit context. This study uses a multiple-interview...

We introduce the concept of fraud morality, validate such conceptualization by prior studies in economics and criminology as well as by our own independent tests, and explore the relationship of fraud morality with numerous cultural attributes using data from the World Values Survey. Applying...