After Enron: Auditor Conservatism and Ex-Andersen Clients
研究安达信倒闭后，继任审计师是否对前安达信客户要求更保守的会计处理以降低诉讼风险，发现这些客户在2002年的异常应计项目更低且下降更多。
This study examines whether after Arthur Andersen's demise, successor auditors required more conservative accounting for their ex-Andersen clients in order to minimize litigation risk. We use unadjusted and performance-adjusted measures of abnormal accruals, and we examine the level of and changes in the abnormal accruals of ex-Andersen clients in 2002 relative to a control sample of clients that were audited by a Big 4 auditor in 2001 and 2002. We conduct univariate and multivariate tests. In our multivariate tests, we control for other factors that may affect litigation risk crosssectionally. Our results indicate that the ex-Andersen clients had lower levels of and larger decreases in abnormal accruals in 2002. This is consistent with auditor conservatism and suggests the successor auditors viewed an Andersen audit as a unique source of litigation risk.