Does Auditor Tenure Improve Audit Quality? Moderating Effects of Industry Specialization and Fee Dependence

作者：Lim Chee Yeow^*; Tan Hun Tong

来源：Contemporary Accounting Research, 2010, 27(3): 923-+.

DOI：10.1111/j.1911-3846.2010.01031.x

• Auditor specialization
• Auditor tenure
• Audit quality
• Fee dependence

We investigate whether the relation between auditor tenure and audit quality is conditional on auditor specialization and fee dependence. Although prior studies have investigated the relation between extended auditor-client tenure and audit quality, none has examined how this relation is jointly influenced by both auditor specialization and fee dependence. Our main analyses, using accrual quality as a measure of audit quality, show that firms audited by specialists (vs. nonspecialists) have relatively higher audit quality with extended auditor tenure. Further, the improvement in audit quality with extended auditor tenure is greater when auditors have lower (vs. higher) fee dependence on clients. These results are robust to sensitivity tests and to alternative proxies for audit quality such as the issuance of going concern opinions and the market's response to quarterly earnings surprises.

• 出版日期2010
• 单位南阳理工学院