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Seeing is believing? Executives' facial trustworthiness, auditor tenure, and audit fees

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  • Hsieh, Tien-Shih
  • Kim, Jeong-Bon
  • Wang, Ray R.
  • Wang, Zhihong

Abstract

Psychology and neuroscience studies document that facial trustworthiness perceptions may affect observers' decision-making process. Our study examines whether auditors' perceptions of client executives' facial trustworthiness are associated with their audit fee decisions. We employ a machine-learning-based face-detection algorithm to measure executives' facial trustworthiness. We find that auditors charge 5.6% less audit fee to firms with trustworthy-looking CFOs than to those with untrustworthy-looking CFOs in initial audit engagements. Auditor tenure weakens the negative association between CFOs' facial trustworthiness and audit fee. Further evidence shows that CFO's facial trustworthiness is associated with neither financial reporting quality nor litigation risk.

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  • Hsieh, Tien-Shih & Kim, Jeong-Bon & Wang, Ray R. & Wang, Zhihong, 2020. "Seeing is believing? Executives' facial trustworthiness, auditor tenure, and audit fees," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jaecon:v:69:y:2020:i:1:s0165410119300552
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jacceco.2019.101260
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    Cited by:

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    2. Kim, Y. Han (Andy) & Park, Junho & Shin, Hojong, 2022. "CEO facial masculinity, fraud, and ESG: Evidence from South Korea," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    3. Duan, Yang & Hsieh, Tien-Shih & Wang, Ray R. & Wang, Zhihong, 2020. "Entrepreneurs' facial trustworthiness, gender, and crowdfunding success," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    4. Xing Li & Xia Chen & Baolei Qi & Gaoliang Tian, 2020. "Employee quality and audit fee: evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(5), pages 4533-4566, December.
    5. Cai, Yongbin & Li, Mengzhe, 2022. "CEO-CFO tenure consistency and audit fees," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    6. Gu, Junjian, 2021. "FDI characteristics, industry homogeneity, and audit fees in Japanese multinationals," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    7. Hoang, Daniel & Wiegratz, Kevin, 2022. "Machine learning methods in finance: Recent applications and prospects," Working Paper Series in Economics 158, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Department of Economics and Management.
    8. Armstrong, Christopher & Kepler, John D. & Samuels, Delphine & Taylor, Daniel, 2022. "Causality redux: The evolution of empirical methods in accounting research and the growth of quasi-experiments," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(2).
    9. Ling, Leng & Luo, Danglun & Li, Xiaoxia & Pan, Xintong, 2022. "Looking good by doing good: CEO attractiveness and corporate philanthropy11We thank the co-editor (Suqin Ge) and the referees for many valuable comments and suggestions. We thank Huimin Li and Jing Sh," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Facial trustworthiness; CFO; Audit fee; Auditor tenure; Cognitive bias;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • M12 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Personnel Management; Executives; Executive Compensation
    • M42 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Auditing

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