Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Accounting
Document Type
Dissertation
Abstract
The United States federal government is the largest entity in the world; however, very little consideration is given to the quality of the financial statement audits it receives. In this study, I seek to determine whether advisory services of accounting firms not providing the audit are associated with the audit quality of US federal agencies. I leverage this unique setting by obtaining advisory fees obtained by audit firms from non-audit federal government agency clients to measure the spillover effect. As advisory fees are usually not visible to the public, this would be a first-of-its-kind study to the best of my knowledge. I use the following indicators of audit quality: the Association of Governmental Accountants' Certificate of Excellence in Accountability Reporting award, observable internal control weaknesses, the filing of annual reports on time, and abnormal audit fees. I find evidence that industry spillover effects from advisory engagements are positively associated with audit quality. This study is informative to US taxpayers as stakeholders in the federal government's financial operations, regulators, and others interested in understanding how an audit firm's advisory engagements may impact audit quality.
Date
4-4-2024
Recommended Citation
Mitchell, Nicholas A., "CAN THE BENEFITS OF AUDIT SPILLOVER BE OBTAINED THROUGH ADVISORY ENGAGEMENTS? AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE AUDIT MARKET FOR US FEDERAL AGENCIES" (2024). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 6419.
https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/6419
Committee Chair
Reichelt, Kenneth