Determinants of Audit Quality for Companies Listed on the London Stock Exchange

Policymakers and regulators have been concerned about the role and value of external auditors and their independence. Using a large sample of the UK’s largest companies over the period 2004-2009 this paper investigates determinants of audit quality. For empirical tests, audit quality is measured by...

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Main Author: Zech, Krzysztof
Format: Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2010
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/23653/
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author Zech, Krzysztof
author_facet Zech, Krzysztof
author_sort Zech, Krzysztof
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Policymakers and regulators have been concerned about the role and value of external auditors and their independence. Using a large sample of the UK’s largest companies over the period 2004-2009 this paper investigates determinants of audit quality. For empirical tests, audit quality is measured by abnormal accruals estimated by Ball and Shivakumar (2006) model and Jones (1991) model. Consistent with theoretical predictions auditee risk and auditor tenure are found to have a positive impact on audit quality. The results also show that client-auditor affiliations and client importance issues create opportunities for earnings management and hence decrease the quality of audit services. In conjunction with mixed impacts of audit and non-audit service fees, obtained relations provide further support to the debate surrounding excessive fees paid to auditors. Finally, empirical tests reveal that audit quality is indifferent among industry specialist auditors or Big 4 and non-Big 4 accounting firms. Keywords: audit quality; Big 4 accounting firms; earnings quality; abnormal accruals; earnings benchmarks.
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spelling nottingham-236532018-02-06T18:14:22Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/23653/ Determinants of Audit Quality for Companies Listed on the London Stock Exchange Zech, Krzysztof Policymakers and regulators have been concerned about the role and value of external auditors and their independence. Using a large sample of the UK’s largest companies over the period 2004-2009 this paper investigates determinants of audit quality. For empirical tests, audit quality is measured by abnormal accruals estimated by Ball and Shivakumar (2006) model and Jones (1991) model. Consistent with theoretical predictions auditee risk and auditor tenure are found to have a positive impact on audit quality. The results also show that client-auditor affiliations and client importance issues create opportunities for earnings management and hence decrease the quality of audit services. In conjunction with mixed impacts of audit and non-audit service fees, obtained relations provide further support to the debate surrounding excessive fees paid to auditors. Finally, empirical tests reveal that audit quality is indifferent among industry specialist auditors or Big 4 and non-Big 4 accounting firms. Keywords: audit quality; Big 4 accounting firms; earnings quality; abnormal accruals; earnings benchmarks. 2010-08-25 Dissertation (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/23653/1/Krzysztof_Zech_-_Dissertation.pdf Zech, Krzysztof (2010) Determinants of Audit Quality for Companies Listed on the London Stock Exchange. [Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)] (Unpublished)
spellingShingle Zech, Krzysztof
Determinants of Audit Quality for Companies Listed on the London Stock Exchange
title Determinants of Audit Quality for Companies Listed on the London Stock Exchange
title_full Determinants of Audit Quality for Companies Listed on the London Stock Exchange
title_fullStr Determinants of Audit Quality for Companies Listed on the London Stock Exchange
title_full_unstemmed Determinants of Audit Quality for Companies Listed on the London Stock Exchange
title_short Determinants of Audit Quality for Companies Listed on the London Stock Exchange
title_sort determinants of audit quality for companies listed on the london stock exchange
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/23653/