Professional skepticism is an essential component of effective auditing, yet in recent years regulators have faulted auditors for insufficient skepticism. To examine what might lead to insufficient skepticism, I explore professional skepticism as a function of moral agency using the theory of...

I examine the extent to which the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's (“PCAOB”) risk-based inspection process produces a generalizable signal of the annually inspected firms' audit quality and improves audit quality. Specifically, I test whether account-specific deficiencies...

Rating scales are one of the most widely used tools in behavioral research. Decisions regarding scale design can have a potentially profound effect on research findings. Despite this importance, an analysis of extant literature in top accounting journals reveals a wide variety of rating scale...

Audit regulators frequently describe that auditors lack sufficient professional skepticism, but practitioners argue that these allegations are unsubstantiated. We review SEC audit enforcement actions (AAERs) and PCAOB inspection findings to understand how regulators evaluate skepticism. Our...

This study provides evidence on the relationship between scale characteristics and participant responses for percentage-based scales (i.e., 101 points) in accounting research. A 4×1 between-subjects experiment examines how common labeling designs affect various statistical properties, including...