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What is the Relationship Between Audit Partner Busyness and Audit Quality?

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  • John Goodwin
  • Donghui Wu

Abstract

Contemporaneous studies generally find a negative relationship between audit partner busyness (APB), measured as the number of clients in an audit partner's portfolio, and audit quality. Their argument is that a busy partner does not devote sufficient time to properly audit his average client. Contrary to these studies, we argue that when busyness is optimally chosen by the partner, in equilibrium, there is no causal relationship between APB and audit quality. Using Australian data for the 1999–2010 period, we show that APB is not reliably linked to audit quality, consistent with this equilibrium theory. We argue that causality can be ascribed to the APB†audit quality relationship when accounting scandals exogenously shocked the Australian audit market during the 2002–04 period and APB likely deviated from optimum levels. Supporting this disequilibrium view, we find that higher APB reduces a partner's propensity to issue first†time going†concern opinions during this period. Our evidence highlights the importance of the equilibrium condition in testing empirical associations between audit outcomes and endogenous auditor attributes, and shows that the detrimental effect of APB on audit quality is not as pervasive as contemporaneous studies suggest.

Suggested Citation

  • John Goodwin & Donghui Wu, 2016. "What is the Relationship Between Audit Partner Busyness and Audit Quality?," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(1), pages 341-377, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:coacre:v:33:y:2016:i:1:p:341-377
    DOI: 10.1111/1911-3846.12129
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    Cited by:

    1. Singh, Harjinder & Sultana, Nigar & Islam, Ariful & Singh, Abhijeet, 2022. "Busy auditors, financial reporting timeliness and quality," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(3).
    2. Sarowar Hossain & Jeff Coulton & Jenny Jing Wang, 2023. "Client Importance and Audit Quality at the Individual Audit Partner, Office, and Firm Levels," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 59(2), pages 650-696, June.
    3. Kim, Hyonok & Fukukawa, Hironori & Routledge, James, 2020. "A comparison of management and auditor going concern risk disclosure: Evidence from regulatory change in Japan," Working Paper Series 234, Management Innovation Research Center, School of Business Administration, Hitotsubashi University Business School.
    4. Masoud Azizkhani & Sarowar Hossain & Mai Nguyen, 2023. "Effects of audit committee chair characteristics on auditor choice, audit fee and audit quality," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(3), pages 3675-3707, September.
    5. MohammadRezaei, Fakhroddin & Mohd-Saleh, Norman & Ahmed, Kamran, 2018. "Audit Firm Ranking, Audit Quality and Audit Fees: Examining Conflicting Price Discrimination Views," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 53(4), pages 295-313.
    6. Tong, Lijing & Wu, Bin & Zhang, Min, 2022. "Do auditors’ early-life socioeconomic opportunities improve audit quality? Evidence from China," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(2).
    7. Dong, Bei & Nash, Jonathan & Xu, Le, 2022. "Indirect effects of regulatory change: Evidence from the acceleration of the 10-K filing deadline," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    8. Sarowar Hossain & Jenny Jing Wang, 2023. "Abnormal audit fees and audit quality: Australian evidence," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 48(3), pages 596-624, August.
    9. Jin Suk Heo & Soo Young Kwon & Hun‐Tong Tan, 2021. "Auditors' Responses to Workload Imbalance and the Impact on Audit Quality," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(1), pages 338-375, March.
    10. Mohammad Abedalrahman Alhmood & Hasnah Shaari & Redhwan Al-dhamari, 2022. "Audit Partner Characteristics and Real Earnings Management Practices in Jordan," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 6, pages 185-200.
    11. repec:mth:ijafr8:v:9:y:2019:i:1:p:450-461 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Rajat Deb & Mukesh Nepal & Sourav Chakraborty, 2023. "IFRS and Audit Quality: A Systematic Literature Review," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 48(1), pages 118-138, February.
    13. Marcus M. Doxey & James G. Lawson & Thomas J. Lopez & Quinn T. Swanquist, 2021. "Do Investors Care Who Did the Audit? Evidence from Form AP," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(5), pages 1741-1782, December.
    14. Sakthi Mahenthiran & Berta Silva Palavecinos & Hanns De La Fuente-Mella, 2020. "The Effect of Board Links, Audit Partner Tenure, and Related Party Transactions on Misstatements: Evidence from Chile," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-21, December.

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