Accounting Commons^™

The Effect Of An Auditor Identity Disclosure Requirement On Audit Quality: An Experimental Examination Incorporating The Incremental Effect Of A Signature Requirement, Allen D. Blay, Eric S. Gooden, Mark J. Mellon, Douglas E. Stevens

Accountancy Faculty Publications and Presentations

After considering a proposal to require the engagement partner’s signature on the audit report (PCAOB 2009), the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board chose instead to only require the disclosure of the engagement partner’s name (PCAOB 2015). This choice was made, however, with little supporting theory or empirical evidence. We make predictions regarding the behavioral effects of the two proposed requirements using insights from social norm activation theory, and test those predictions using an experimental audit market setting found in the literature. We find that both requirements reduce misreporting in the audit report compared to a control setting with neither requirement …