We examine the effect of changes in audit risk standards on the conduct of financial statement audits in a European setting. We investigate this by analysing the audit hours and audit fees for clients of Big 4 audit firms in Finland in 1996 and 2010. Our results show that audit firms became more...

This paper draws from the service science and professional service literatures to conceptualize financial auditing as an economic service. A central characteristic of economic services is the participation of the customer/client in the production process. The necessity of having the...

Responsive regulation (RR) theory posits that effective regulators enforce compliance by escalating penalties only if persuasion fails, otherwise risking formation of a culture of resentment. Using RR theory as a lens, we examine the interactions between large audit firms and the PCAOB during...

This paper examines the association between audit-firm characteristics and audit-related litigation risk. Previous litigation risk studies have been limited to examining audit-client characteristics, as audit-firm data has generally been unavailable, or available only for a very small set of...

This paper examines whether peer review conducted under the AICPA's self-regulatory regime has been effective at signaling audit quality. In spite of the long-standing debate about self-regulated peer review in the auditing profession, there is a surprising lack of research evidence as to...

Effective consultation is critical for improving the audit of estimates. In an experiment where audit managers acted as consultants to other auditors, we examine conditions in which consultants either recommend estimates that differ substantially from advice-seekers' assessments (contrariness)...