Current Italian regulation allows private companies to have their accounts audited by either an audit firm, by a Board of statutory auditors, or by an individual auditor. A recent debate raised doubts about whether the quality of services provided by the various types of auditors allowed by the regulation can be considered homogeneous. This paper aims at empirically testing whether there are significant differences in audit quality among audit firms, Boards of statutory auditors, and individual auditors. The empirical analysis covers a sample of 1,420 private Italian companies. The results of our analysis show that “Big” audit firms are able to provide a higher audit quality than other types of auditors, while there is no significant difference in audit quality provided by “Non-Big” audit firms, Boards of statutory auditors, or individual auditors. .However, this is true for the majority but not for all the firms belonging to the “Big-N” group, therefore any generalization of our results should be made with caution.

Audit quality and auditor type: the Italian experience

BAR-YOSEF, SASSON;CAMERAN, MARA;PRENCIPE, ANNALISA
2011

Abstract

Current Italian regulation allows private companies to have their accounts audited by either an audit firm, by a Board of statutory auditors, or by an individual auditor. A recent debate raised doubts about whether the quality of services provided by the various types of auditors allowed by the regulation can be considered homogeneous. This paper aims at empirically testing whether there are significant differences in audit quality among audit firms, Boards of statutory auditors, and individual auditors. The empirical analysis covers a sample of 1,420 private Italian companies. The results of our analysis show that “Big” audit firms are able to provide a higher audit quality than other types of auditors, while there is no significant difference in audit quality provided by “Non-Big” audit firms, Boards of statutory auditors, or individual auditors. .However, this is true for the majority but not for all the firms belonging to the “Big-N” group, therefore any generalization of our results should be made with caution.
2011
Audit quality and auditor type: the Italian experience
BAR-YOSEF, Sasson; Cameran, Mara; Prencipe, Annalisa
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11565/3831497
 Attenzione

Attenzione! I dati visualizzati non sono stati sottoposti a validazione da parte dell'ateneo

Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact