Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Accounting

Document Type

Dissertation

Abstract

Audit partner rotation has been a major concern in the United States since the audit failures in the early 2000s. While several international studies have examined the impact of audit partner rotation on audit quality, research in the world’s largest audit market has been limited due to the availability of partner data. However, with the passage of Rule 3211 (commonly referred to as Form AP), partner-level data for the U.S. market has recently become available. In my dissertation, I examine how audit partner rotation affects financial reporting quality in the U.S. and how office-level industry specialization impacts the transition from one audit partner to the next. My overall findings are that audit partner rotation does not have a significant impact on measures of audit quality. Furthermore, office-level industry specialization does not improve audit quality when there is a change in partner. In addition, there is some evidence that when companies change audit office locations, the change is driven by the desire for the audit office with industry-specific knowledge. Overall, this gives an alternative perspective, based on publicly available data, on the impact of audit partner change and auditor office-level industry specialists.

Date

6-28-2020

Committee Chair

Reichelt, Kenneth

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_dissertations.5314

Available for download on Friday, December 31, 2027

Included in

Accounting Commons

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