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Determinants and career consequences of early audit partner rotations

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  • Gipper, Brandon
  • Hail, Luzi
  • Leuz, Christian

Abstract

We examine how often and why some audit partners rotate off client engagements before the end of the maximum five-year cycle period. Specifically, we investigate whether audit quality issues play a role for engagement partners and clients to separate prematurely. For a sample of about 4,000 within-audit firm partner rotations for Big 6 clients over the 2008 to 2014 period, we find that client characteristics such as financial leverage or performance have little explanatory power. In contrast, severe audit quality issues such as financial restatements or PCAOB inspection findings are associated with early partner rotations. These associations are more pronounced for early rotations that are not explained by scheduled retirements, promotions, or temporary leaves as well as for large clients and when partners are less experienced. We also find that female partners have a higher likelihood of early rotation for audit quality reasons. Early rotations have career consequences. Partners are assigned to fewer SEC issuer clients, manage fewer audit hours, receive lower partner ratings, and are more likely to be internally inspected after being rotated early. Our results suggest that audit quality concerns are an important factor for early partner rotations with ensuing negative career consequences for partners' client assignments and management responsibilities.

Suggested Citation

  • Gipper, Brandon & Hail, Luzi & Leuz, Christian, 2021. "Determinants and career consequences of early audit partner rotations," CFS Working Paper Series 676, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:cfswop:676
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    Cited by:

    1. Lennox, Clive & Wang, Chunfei & Wu, Xi, 2023. "Delegated leadership at public accounting firms," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(1).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    auditor rotation; audit quality; audit partners; career development; auditindustry; PCAOB;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General
    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations
    • L84 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Personal, Professional, and Business Services
    • M21 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Economics - - - Business Economics
    • M42 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Auditing

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