Do Practitioner Assessments Agree with Academic Proxies for Audit Quality? Evidence from PCAOB and Internal Inspections

74 Pages Posted: 12 Jul 2015 Last revised: 14 Jan 2019

See all articles by Daniel Aobdia

Daniel Aobdia

Pennsylvania State University - Smeal College of Business

Date Written: September 4, 2018

Abstract

This study investigates the degree of concordance between fifteen measures of audit quality used in academia and two measures of audit process quality determined either by audit firms’ internal inspections or by Public Company Accounting Oversight Board inspections of individual engagements. Using two confidential datasets of these assessments of audit process quality, I find that three of the measures of audit quality used by academics have significant associations with both measures of audit process deficiencies used by auditors and regulators: (i) the propensity to restate financial statements, (ii) the propensity to meet or beat the zero earnings threshold, and (iii) audit fees. Seven academic proxies are significantly associated with only one audit process quality measure, and five have insignificant associations with both practitioner assessments. Overall, the significant associations indicate that practitioners and academics share common ground in identifying low-quality audits. These findings can provide guidance for future studies in selecting audit-quality proxies suitable for different research questions.

Keywords: Audit Process Quality, PCAOB Inspections, Measures of Audit Quality

JEL Classification: M42, C80

Suggested Citation

Aobdia, Daniel, Do Practitioner Assessments Agree with Academic Proxies for Audit Quality? Evidence from PCAOB and Internal Inspections (September 4, 2018). Journal of Accounting & Economics (JAE), Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2629305 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2629305

Daniel Aobdia (Contact Author)

Pennsylvania State University - Smeal College of Business ( email )

University Park, PA 16802
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
1,934
Abstract Views
7,580
Rank
15,728
PlumX Metrics