The Contagion Effect of Low-Quality Audits
研究发现，审计师办公室若存在低质量审计（客户虚增利润后被下调），会传染给同期其他客户，导致盈余质量下降，且该效应持续五年，表明审计质量问题具有系统性且持续存在。
ABSTRACT We investigate if the existence of low-quality audits in an auditor office indicates the presence of a “contagion effect” on the quality of other (concurrent) audits conducted by the office. A low-quality audit is defined as the presence of one or more clients with overstated earnings that were subsequently corrected by a downward restatement. We document that the quality of audited earnings (abnormal accruals) is lower for clients in these office-years (when the misreporting occurred) compared to a control sample of office-years with no restatements. This effect lasts for up to five subsequent years, indicating that audit firms do not immediately rectify the problems that caused contagion. We also find that an office-year with client misreporting is likely to have subsequent (new) client restatements over the next five fiscal years. Overall, the evidence suggests that certain auditor offices have systematic audit-quality problems and that these problems persist over time. Data Availability: All data are publicly available.