Market Reaction to Financial Statement Restatement: A Study on the Information and Insurance Role of Auditors

Although researches have extensively studied the relationship between audit quality and financial reporting, little has been said about the consequences to auditors of financial reporting failure in terms of impairment of the audit information role. Based in Taiwan’s unique setting, we documents the information role of audit by examining the market reaction to the annual reports of the other clients of auditors associated with restatements. We find that market reaction to clients audited by auditors associated with restatements is significantly more negative than that of clients audited by auditors not associated with restatements, especially for Big-Four auditors. While the results of non-restatement-related group complies with the literature that suggested significantly more positive market reactions for Big-Four clients, abnormal returns are more negative for Big-Four clients of restatement-related auditors. We conclude that an additional penalty for reports audited by Big-Four auditors associated with restatements impairs the perception of their information role.