The Use of Hierarchical Linear Modeling to Address Lack-of-Independence in Empirical Auditing Research
指出传统线性回归在分析嵌套的审计数据时违反独立性假设，提出用分层线性模型（HLM）解决该问题，并以审计质量与事务所及合伙人任期的关系为例，证明HLM与普通最小二乘法结果不同。
Prior empirical auditing research has typically used linear regression analysis to analyze auditor relationships. However, because audit firms, audit partners, and audit clients are nested and clustered, data on them lacks independence, and violates the assumptions necessary for valid tests using simple linear regressions. This deficiency can be overcome by employing the hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) technique to conduct empirical tests. We illustrate this by employing HLM to explain the relationship between audit quality and audit firm, and audit partner tenure. We show that employing HLM yields different results than those found using ordinary least squares.