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Auditor liability rules under imperfect information and costly litigation: the welfare-increasing effect of liability insurance

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  • Ralf Ewert
  • Eberhard Feess
  • Martin Nell

Abstract

This paper examines auditor liability rules under imperfect information, costly litigation and risk-averse auditors. A negligence rule fails in such a setting, because in equilibrium auditors will deviate with positive probability from any given standard. It is shown that strict liability outperforms negligence with respect to risk allocation and the probability that a desired level of care is met by the auditor if competitive liability insurance markets exist. Furthermore, our model explains the existence of insurance contracts containing obligations a type of contract often observed in liability insurance markets.

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  • Ralf Ewert & Eberhard Feess & Martin Nell, 2000. "Auditor liability rules under imperfect information and costly litigation: the welfare-increasing effect of liability insurance," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(3), pages 371-385.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:euract:v:9:y:2000:i:3:p:371-385
    DOI: 10.1080/09638180020017122
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Derek K. Chan & Suil Pae, 1998. "An Analysis of the Economic Consequences of the Proportionate Liability Rule," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(4), pages 457-480, December.
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    6. Ralf Ewert, 1999. "Auditor Liability and the Precision of Auditing Standards," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 155(1), pages 181-181, March.
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    9. Narayanan, Vg, 1994. "An Analysis Of Auditor Liability Rules," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32, pages 39-59.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ganuza, Juan Jose & Gomez, Fernando, 2007. "Should we trust the gatekeepers?: Auditors' and lawyers' liability for clients' misconduct," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 96-109, March.
    2. Ho, Shirley J. & Mallick, Sushanta K., 2015. "A Copayment Auditing Scheme for Financial Misreporting," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 53-74.
    3. Jochen Bigus, 2007. "Die Sorgfaltsanreize des Wirtschaftsprüfers bei beschränkter Haftung," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 61-86, February.
    4. Chiawen Liu & Taychang Wang, 2006. "Auditor Liability and Business Investment," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(4), pages 1051-1071, December.
    5. Jochen Bigus, 2015. "Loss Aversion, Audit Risk Judgments, and Auditor Liability," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 581-606, September.
    6. Erich Pummerer & Marcel Steller & Julia Baldauf, 2013. "Prüfungsqualität, Prüferhaftung und Risikoaversion — Eine analytische Betrachtung der Bedeutung der Risikoaversion für die Prüfungsqualität," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 32-59, February.
    7. Konstantinos Eleftheriou & Iliya Komarev & Paul Klumpes, 2023. "Regulating the Market for Audit Services: A Game Theoretic Approach," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 59(3), pages 697-734, September.

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