IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/joares/v59y2021i1p331-370.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do PCAOB Inspections Improve the Accuracy of Accounting Estimates?

Author

Listed:
  • SARAH B. STUBER
  • CHRIS E. HOGAN

Abstract

Despite issuing extensive guidance related to the evaluation of accounting estimates, the PCAOB continues to identify deficiencies related to the audit of estimates through their inspections process. We examine whether PCAOB inspections lead to more accurate audited accounting estimates, defined as those that more closely match economic reality, by examining a significant estimate within the banking industry. We find that in contrast with the PCAOB's goal of more accurate and unbiased estimates, allowance for loan losses (ALL) estimates become less accurate and more conservative with higher levels of ALL‐related inspection findings for public company audits. We find no evidence of auditor response to PCAOB inspection findings for private‐company audits, which are not subject to PCAOB inspection. Overall, our findings cast doubt on the efficacy of PCAOB inspections in improving estimate accuracy and suggest that firms are managing inspection risk to the potential detriment of audit quality.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarah B. Stuber & Chris E. Hogan, 2021. "Do PCAOB Inspections Improve the Accuracy of Accounting Estimates?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(1), pages 331-370, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:joares:v:59:y:2021:i:1:p:331-370
    DOI: 10.1111/1475-679X.12339
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-679X.12339
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1475-679X.12339?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carlin Dowling & W. Robert Knechel & Robyn Moroney, 2018. "Public Oversight of Audit Firms: The Slippery Slope of Enforcing Regulation," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 54(3), pages 353-380, September.
    2. Kirchler, Erich & Hoelzl, Erik & Wahl, Ingrid, 2008. "Enforced versus voluntary tax compliance: The "slippery slope" framework," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 210-225, April.
    3. Petroni, Kathy Ruby, 1992. "Optimistic reporting in the property- casualty insurance industry," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 485-508, December.
    4. Lennox, Clive & Pittman, Jeffrey, 2010. "Auditing the auditors: Evidence on the recent reforms to the external monitoring of audit firms," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1-2), pages 84-103, February.
    5. Aobdia, Daniel, 2019. "Do practitioner assessments agree with academic proxies for audit quality? Evidence from PCAOB and internal inspections," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 144-174.
    6. Scott B. Jackson & Xiaotao (Kelvin) Liu, 2010. "The Allowance for Uncollectible Accounts, Conservatism, and Earnings Management," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3), pages 565-601, June.
    7. Emily E. Griffith & Jacqueline S. Hammersley & Kathryn Kadous & Donald Young, 2015. "Auditor Mindsets and Audits of Complex Estimates," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(1), pages 49-77, March.
    8. Hainmueller, Jens, 2012. "Entropy Balancing for Causal Effects: A Multivariate Reweighting Method to Produce Balanced Samples in Observational Studies," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 25-46, January.
    9. George J. Stigler, 1971. "The Theory of Economic Regulation," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 2(1), pages 3-21, Spring.
    10. Abernathy, John L. & Barnes, Michael & Stefaniak, Chad, 2013. "A summary of 10 years of PCAOB research: What have we learned?," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 30-60.
    11. Beck, Paul J. & Narayanamoorthy, Ganapathi S., 2013. "Did the SEC impact banks' loan loss reserve policies and their informativeness?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 42-65.
    12. Sam Peltzman, 1989. "The Economic Theory of Regulation after a Decade of Deregulation," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 20(1989 Micr), pages 1-59.
    13. Petroni, K & Beasley, M, 1996. "Errors in accounting estimates and their relation to audit firm type," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 151-171.
    14. Gaver, Jennifer J. & Paterson, Jeffrey S., 2004. "Do insurers manipulate loss reserves to mask solvency problems?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 393-416, September.
    15. Nicoletti, Allison, 2018. "The effects of bank regulators and external auditors on loan loss provisions," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 244-265.
    16. Lindsay M. Johnson & Marsha B. Keune & Jennifer Winchel, 2019. "U.S. Auditors' Perceptions of the PCAOB Inspection Process: A Behavioral Examination†," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(3), pages 1540-1574, September.
    17. Hribar, Paul & Melessa, Samuel J. & Small, R. Christopher & Wilde, Jaron H., 2017. "Does managerial sentiment affect accrual estimates? Evidence from the banking industry," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 26-50.
    18. DeFond, Mark L., 2010. "How should the auditors be audited? Comparing the PCAOB Inspections with the AICPA Peer Reviews," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1-2), pages 104-108, February.
    19. Lamoreaux, Phillip T., 2016. "Does PCAOB inspection access improve audit quality? An examination of foreign firms listed in the United States," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 313-337.
    20. Timothy W. Koch & Larry D. Wall, 2000. "Bank loan-loss accounting: a review of theoretical and empirical evidence," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, vol. 85(Q2), pages 1-20.
    21. Mark L. Defond & Clive S. Lennox, 2017. "Do PCAOB Inspections Improve the Quality of Internal Control Audits?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 591-627, June.
    22. Fung, Simon Yu Kit & Raman, K.K. & Zhu, Xindong (Kevin), 2017. "Does the PCAOB international inspection program improve audit quality for non-US-listed foreign clients?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 15-36.
    23. DeFond, Mark & Zhang, Jieying, 2014. "A review of archival auditing research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 275-326.
    24. Altamuro, Jennifer & Beatty, Anne, 2010. "How does internal control regulation affect financial reporting?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1-2), pages 58-74, February.
    25. Aobdia, Daniel & Shroff, Nemit, 2017. "Regulatory oversight and auditor market share," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 262-287.
    26. Richard Dietrich, J. & Harris, Mary S. & MullerIII, Karl A., 2000. "The reliability of investment property fair value estimates," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 125-158, October.
    27. Christopher Carpenter & Carlos Dobkin, 2011. "The Minimum Legal Drinking Age and Public Health," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(2), pages 133-156, Spring.
    28. Steven M. Glover & Mark H. Taylor & Yi‐Jing Wu & Ken T. Trotman, 2019. "Mind the Gap: Why Do Experts Have Differences of Opinion Regarding the Sufficiency of Audit Evidence Supporting Complex Fair Value Measurements?†," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(3), pages 1417-1460, September.
    29. Kimberly D. Westermann & Jeffrey Cohen & Greg Trompeter, 2019. "PCAOB Inspections: Public Accounting Firms on “Trial”," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(2), pages 694-731, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Christensen, Brant & Lei, Lijun (Gillian) & Shu, Sydney Qing & Thomas, Wayne, 2023. "Does audit regulation improve the underlying information used by managers? Evidence from PCAOB inspection access and management forecast accuracy," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    2. Ayca Zeynep Suer, 2021. "Review of Critical Accounting Estimates in the Context of Key Audit Matters," Muhasebe Enstitusu Dergisi - Journal of Accounting Institute, Istanbul University Business School, vol. 0(65), pages 23-37, July.
    3. Balakrishnan, Karthik & De George, Emmanuel T. & Ertan, Aytekin & Scobie, Hannah, 2021. "Economic consequences of mandatory auditor reporting to bank regulators," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2).
    4. Shaw, Kenneth W. & Whitworth, James D., 2022. "Client importance and unconditional conservatism in complex accounting estimates," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    5. Christensen, Brant E. & Newton, Nathan J. & Wilkins, Michael S., 2024. "Costs and benefits of a risk-based PCAOB inspection regime," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    6. Ege, Matthew S. & Stuber, Sarah B., 2022. "Are auditors rewarded for low audit quality? The case of auditor lenience in the insurance industry," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hanlon, Michelle & Shroff, Nemit, 2022. "Insights into auditor public oversight boards: Whether, how, and why they “work”," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1).
    2. Christensen, Brant E. & Newton, Nathan J. & Wilkins, Michael S., 2024. "Costs and benefits of a risk-based PCAOB inspection regime," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    3. Kim, Yongtae & (Nancy) Su, Lixin & (Stephen) Zhou, Gaoguang & (Kevin) Zhu, Xindong, 2020. "PCAOB international inspections and Merger and Acquisition outcomes," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1).
    4. Christensen, Brant & Lei, Lijun (Gillian) & Shu, Sydney Qing & Thomas, Wayne, 2023. "Does audit regulation improve the underlying information used by managers? Evidence from PCAOB inspection access and management forecast accuracy," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    5. Prabashi Dharmasiri & Soon-Yeow Phang & Ashna Prasad & John Webster, 2022. "Consequences of Ethical and Audit Violations: Evidence from the PCAOB Settled Disciplinary Orders," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(1), pages 179-203, August.
    6. Daniel Aobdia, 2020. "The Economic Consequences of Audit Firms’ Quality Control System Deficiencies," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(7), pages 2883-2905, July.
    7. Inder K. Khurana & Nathan G. Lundstrom & K. K. Raman, 2021. "PCAOB Inspections and the Differential Audit Quality Effect for Big 4 and Non–Big 4 US Auditors," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(1), pages 376-411, March.
    8. Knechel, W. Robert & Park, Hyun Jong, 2022. "Audit firm political connections and PCAOB inspection reports," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    9. Aobdia, Daniel & Shroff, Nemit, 2017. "Regulatory oversight and auditor market share," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 262-287.
    10. Ege, Matthew & Knechel, W. Robert & Lamoreaux, Phillip T. & Maksymov, Eldar, 2020. "A multi-method analysis of the PCAOB’s relationship with the audit profession," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    11. Phillip T. Lamoreaux & Landon M. Mauler & Nathan J. Newton, 2020. "Audit Regulation and Cost of Equity Capital: Evidence from the PCAOB's International Inspection Regime," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(4), pages 2438-2471, December.
    12. Aobdia, Daniel & Dou, Yiwei & Kim, Jungbae, 2021. "Public audit oversight and the originate-to-distribute model," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1).
    13. Ege, Matthew S. & Stuber, Sarah B., 2022. "Are auditors rewarded for low audit quality? The case of auditor lenience in the insurance industry," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1).
    14. Aobdia, Daniel, 2019. "Do practitioner assessments agree with academic proxies for audit quality? Evidence from PCAOB and internal inspections," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 144-174.
    15. Flasher, Renee & Schenck, Kristy, 2019. "Exploring PCAOB inspection results for audit firms headquartered outside of the US," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    16. Fung, Simon Yu Kit & Raman, K.K. & Zhu, Xindong (Kevin), 2017. "Does the PCAOB international inspection program improve audit quality for non-US-listed foreign clients?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 15-36.
    17. Philip Beaulieu & Louise Hayes & Lev M. Timoshenko, 2023. "Changes in accounting estimates: An update of priors or an earnings management strategy of “last resort”?," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3-4), pages 622-659, March.
    18. Martin F. Grace & J. Tyler Leverty, 2010. "Political Cost Incentives for Managing the Property‐Liability Insurer Loss Reserve," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 21-49, March.
    19. Raphael Duguay & Michael Minnis & Andrew Sutherland, 2020. "Regulatory Spillovers in Common Audit Markets," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(8), pages 3389-3411, August.
    20. Nathan R. Berglund, 2020. "Do Client Bankruptcies Preceded by Clean Audit Opinions Damage Auditor Reputation?," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(3), pages 1914-1951, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:joares:v:59:y:2021:i:1:p:331-370. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-8456 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.