Audit Partner Identification: Early Evidence from U.S. Form AP Filings

Abstract

This paper investigates the overall impact of and the information made available by the recent audit partner disclosure requirement in the U.S. After a contentious comment period, the PCAOB released Rule 3211, which requires registered public accounting firms to disclose the name of the audit partner for every audit report it issues. In the first year of adoption, we find that the disclosure requirement has a positive association with audit quality and audit fees and a negative association with audit delay. Further, since the identities of public company audit partners are now known, we also collect information on partner gender, busyness, education, and social connections to explore whether these newly observable characteristics are associated with audit outcomes. We find several of these characteristics to be informative for variations in audit fees and delay, but no evidence for variations in audit quality. Overall, our findings suggest that the disclosure requirement enhances the information environment.