According to the authors, stock options and restricted stocks are important components in CEO compensation. This study shows that auditors do perceive greater audit risk due to CEO equity compensation adjust pricing decisions accordingly. Auditors appear more concerned about CEO’s incentives to increase a company’s risky behavior so as to the CEO’s equity based compensation as opposed to increasing stock price specifically. As a CEO’s vega (i.e. change in value of a manager’s equity portfolio due to a change in stock return volatility) increases, a manager becomes less risk averse and more willing to engage in risky behavior such as earnings management. This study offers additional insights into the cost/benefits of equity based compensation.

Kim, Y., H. Li, and S. Li. 2015. CEO Equity Incentives and Audit Fees. Contemporary Accounting Review 32 (2): 608-638.

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Given that auditor concentration is an important topic that has seen relatively little empirical research, this study contributes to the literature by providing more complete evidence on the relation between auditor concentration and audit quality. Concentration reduced the opportunity for Big 4 clients to switch auditors particularly given the new auditor independence requirements following the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Reduced choice is seen as increasing auditor entrenchment and complacency, and potentially contributing to a more lenient and less skeptical audit for clients.

Boone, J. P., I. K. Khurana, and K.K. Raman. 2012. Audit Market Concentration and Auditor Tolerance for Earnings Management* Audit Market Concentration and Auditor Tolerance for Earnings Management. Contemporary Accounting Research 29 (4): 1171-1203. 

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The evidence indicates that tone manipulation succeeds in misleading investors, and that this effect is incremental to the effect of accruals management. An abnormally positive tone incites an overly optimistic immediate stock price response to the earnings announcement and a subsequent return reversal. The evidence indicates that abnormal positive tone contains negative information about future firm fundamentals, that firms tend to engage in tone management particularly when incentives to manipulate investor perceptions are high, and that investors are misinformed by tone management.

Huang, X., Teoh, S. H., & Zhang, Y. 2014. Tone Management. Accounting Review 89 (3): 1083-1113.

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While prior research has investigated audit effects in for profit industries, this study investigates audit effects at nonprofit organizations. Nonprofits in general and PHAs in particular are largely served by smaller auditors frequently classified in prior research as lower quality. Further, nonprofits in general represent low litigation risks for the auditors and the threat of litigation and associated economic loss is generally considered one motive for an audit firm to perform a high quality audit. The evidence suggests that audits matter in the nonprofit industry. So even in a setting where research would suggest there would be low audit quality, when the auditor is smaller and the risk of litigation is low, auditors make significant adjustments to pre-audited data and help to constrain management bias toward meeting pre-established financial thresholds.

For more information on this study, please contact Barbara Grein.

Grein, B. M., and S. L. Tate. 2011. Monitoring by Auditors: The Case of Public Housing Authorities. The Accounting Review 86 (4):1289-1319.

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The results of this study are important for auditors, investors, clients’ audit committees, and regulators. Disclosure about auditor resignations may reveal useful information about clients’ financial reporting practices. Since auditor resignations potentially signal risk arising from clients’ opportunistic financial reporting behavior, investors can make more informed decisions when they understand the linkage between RAM and auditor resignations. The findings of this study also have an important implication for clients’ audit committees, because these committees can help to avoid potential negative consequences associated with RAM and auditor resignations by overseeing management reporting practices. Further, the results of this study are important for regulators because they are concerned about auditor changes that are triggered by management opportunism.

For more information on this study, please contact Yongtae Kim.

Kim, Y., and M. Park. 2014. Real Activities manipulation and auditors’ client-retention decisions. The Accounting Review 89 (1): 367-401.

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