Political contributions and the auditor–client relationship
研究发现，审计客户的政治捐款越高，其财务重述越少、持续经营意见和重大缺陷报告也越少，但审计师收费更高且任期更长，表明政治关联可能削弱审计独立性。
Abstract We investigate the impact of audit client political contributions on various audit attributes. We find that, despite having poorer accruals quality, clients with higher political contributions have fewer restatements, receive no more going concern qualified opinions and receive fewer reported material weaknesses. Additionally, we find that auditors earn higher fees from and have longer tenure with their politically connected clients. Our evidence is indirect, but the totality of our results is most consistent with an economic bond between auditors and their politically connected clients, whereby clients are allowed more accounting discretion and receive fewer adverse audit outcomes, and the auditor charges a persistent risk premium. We conclude that client political connections likely influence audit outcomes because of either reduced scrutiny from regulators or direct influence on auditors. We extend a growing body of research on the consequences of corporate political connections.