Global-Level Auditor Industry Specialization and the Cost of Equity Capital
研究了全球层面以及全球、国家和城市联合层面的审计师行业专长与客户股权资本成本的关系，发现负相关关系仅在投资者保护强的国家成立，且联合专长能缓解应计质量和股权集中度对资本成本的影响。
SYNOPSIS We examine (1) the association between global-level and joint global-, national-, and city-level auditor industry specialization and audit clients’ cost of equity capital and (2) how the national investor protection environment impacts the preceding association. Our results indicate that cost of equity capital is negatively associated with global-level and joint global-, national-, and city-level auditor industry specialization. This relation is incrementally more negative when the auditor is a joint global-, national-, and city-level industry specialist than when the auditor is not a global-level industry specialist. We also find the negative relation between cost of equity capital and joint global-, national-, and city-level auditor industry specialization holds only in countries with strong investor protection. We further show investors perceive potential accentuation of accruals quality and ownership concentration on cost of equity is mitigated by joint global-, national-, and city-level specialist auditors. JEL Classifications: M42; G32; K49.