Audit Firm Employee Turnover: Implications for Audit Quality
基于比利时审计事务所披露的员工流动数据，研究发现员工流动率越高审计质量越低，主动离职和异常流动的负面影响更明显，而解雇则无此关联。对审计实务者和研究人员有参考价值。
SUMMARY Using data from Belgian audit firm human capital disclosures that provide direct measures of employee turnover, voluntary departures, and dismissals, we examine the association between audit firm-level employee turnover and audit quality. First, we confirm that turnover is negatively associated with audit quality in a setting dominated by private firms, corroborating recent U.S. evidence from listed companies. Second, we find that voluntary and abnormal turnover are associated with lower audit quality, whereas dismissals are not. Third, the negative association between turnover and audit quality is more pronounced in firms with lower partner staffing leverage and lower employee replacement. Our study contributes to research and practice by demonstrating that (1) the negative association between turnover and audit quality generalizes to private company audits, (2) voluntary and abnormal turnover are associated with lower audit quality, and (3) firms can mitigate employee turnover through higher staffing leverage and higher employee replacement rates. Data Availability: The data are available from the sources we identify in the paper. JEL Classifications: M42.