Research Topics of Interest

Current research topics of interest include, but are not limited to: 

• Theoretical models of the economics of auditing and audit oversight, including determinants of incentives to compete on quality.
• What is the relationship between PCAOB inspection deficiencies, audit quality, and the quality of issuer financial reporting?
• Estimation of investor demand for PCAOB inspections, PCAOB data, enforcement actions, e.g.:
• Some audit firms use their PCAOB registration for marketing purposes. How valuable is PCAOB oversight to audit firms?
• There is demand for PCAOB information on the web, including via vendors. How valuable is the information made available?
• Issuer market reactions to disclosures of the inspections results and enforcement actions.
• Optimal scoping of the PCAOB’s inspections program and marginal value of selecting incremental audit files for inspection.
• Empirical research on economic relationship between regulated audit practice and non-regulated parts of the professional services firm, incl. partner compensation; theoretical research on efficiency rationale for profit sharing across audit and non-audit practice.
• Empirical evidence regarding the employment market for audit firm personnel.
• Economic incentives, cognitive biases, and heuristics in auditing.
• “Industrial organization” of audit firms (as such term is used in economic theory), including audit-firm structure, market structure and competition, strategic behavior, and the supply of qualified human capital.
• Determinants and effects of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the auditing profession.
• The role of data and technology in the audit.
• Implications of reliance/overreliance on AI for fraud detection.
• New AI tools with applications to auditing and financial reporting.
• Implications of the use of generative AI software by firms and engagement teams.
• Implications of the use of generative AI on the training and development of newer/junior staff.
• Implications of AI for auditor independence.
• Economic effects of the application of auditing standards to audits of emerging growth companies.
• How do firm and issuer behaviors change following enforcement?
• Auditors’ relationship to financial statement restatements:
• roles of current auditors in identifying financial misstatements;
• why current auditors did not identify financial statement errors or internal control weaknesses in cases where the financial reports were later restated;
• were errors identified by new auditors (fresh eyes and more professional skepticism) that led to a restatement?
• How “Big R” restatements may be mischaracterized as “little r” revisions and how to identify those.
• Investor outreach and experimental studies to understand investors’ use of audit reports.
• Demand for and economic effects of audit firm transparency, disclosure of audit firm and audit engagement performance metrics.
• Drivers and deterrents of critical audit matter reporting and use by investors.
• Companies’ current practice of using service organizations and auditor considerations when companies use service organizations.
• Extent of the use of internal audit’s work or use of internal audit in a direct assistance capacity and investor perceptions of the effect on audit quality.
• Trends in issuer outsourcing of the internal audit function.
• Implications of the use of “others under the direction of management” for controls testing (under AS 2201.16-.19).
• Correlation of quality-based compensation adjustments with inspection results and impact on audit partner behavior.