HCBE Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

Department

H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship

Advisor

Mary Fischer

Committee Member

Andrew Felo

Committee Member

Jack Ethridge

Abstract

Formed under the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) was charged with providing the interpretive guidance for auditors to use in carrying out their responsibilities under Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404. Auditing Standard No. 2 (AS2) provided the initial guidance to auditors beginning in 2004. Early research on audit delay and audit fees under these new requirements revealed significant increases in both. Although audit delay and audit fees decreased in subsequent years, they remained much higher than predicted. As a result of the concerns and complaints of the accounting profession and the public firms affected by AS2, the PCAOB rescinded AS2 and replaced it with Auditing Standard No. 5 (AS5) in 2007. The primary objective of the new guidance focuses the auditors’ attention on the most important matters in the audit of internal controls over financial reporting and eliminating procedures that the Board believes are unnecessary to an effective audit of internal control. Intended to streamline the audit process, the goal of the PCAOB was to reduce audit delay and audit fees. Research in the AS5 era has produced mixed results for both. In this study, I extend the early AS5 research to determine if AS5 has had a significant impact on reducing both audit delay and audit fees. Using multiple regression analysis, I examine audit delay and audit fees from 2007 through 2013 to determine their long-term trend. Data sources include Audit Analytics, Compustat, and CRSP. Based on the literature review, I expect to find a decrease to both audit delay and audit fees over the long-term.

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