The Market Premium for Audit Partners with Big 4 Experience
研究非四大审计合伙人的四大工作经验是否被市场认可，发现小型事务所中此类合伙人审计费用溢价17%至26%，但审计质量未显著提升。
SYNOPSIS This study investigates how non-Big 4 firm audit partners' Big 4 experience is valued by the audit market. The Big 4 audit firms have differentiated themselves as nationally recognized firms for whose services companies are willing to pay a premium. It is unclear, however, whether this reputation follows individual auditors when they move to a non-Big 4 audit firm. We find that audit fees are higher for non-Big 4 audit partners with Big 4 experience with the fee premium ranging from 17 to 26 percent depending on the extent of experience when they are employed by small audit firms but find no evidence of a fee premium for Big 4 experience at the second-tier audit firms. Furthermore, in additional analyses, we do not find strong, consistent evidence that audit quality is higher for clients of non-Big 4 audit partners with Big 4 experience than their counterparts without Big 4 experience. Data Availability: Data were obtained from publicly available sources identified in the paper. JEL Classifications: M42.