The Effect of Audit Partner Diversity on Audit Quality: Evidence from China
研究中国上市公司数据发现，审计合伙人在教育背景、性别和代际上的多样性越高，审计质量越好，且客户信息不对称、审计师任务动机和能力会强化这一正向效应。
This study examines the effects of audit partner diversity on audit quality. Using a sample of Chinese listed companies from 2004–2018, we find that audit quality is positively associated with audit partner diversity in educational background, gender, and generational cohort. These findings suggest that diverse partner teams outperform homogenous teams and support the information perspective that audit partner diversity produces different viewpoints and perspectives, thus reducing judgement bias and leading to higher audit quality. Furthermore, we find that client information asymmetry, auditor task motivation, and task ability play a moderating role in reinforcing the positive effects of audit partner diversity on audit quality. Our findings have practical implications for audit firm personnel dispatching and team formation, and heighten the need to integrate team dynamics in the audit quality framework.