Auditor brand name, industry specialisation, and earnings management: evidence from Taiwanese companies

Abstract

We investigate the relationship between auditor brand name, industry specialisation, and earnings management as measured by discretionary accruals for a sample of listed companies in Taiwan, where the litigation risk against auditors is much less than the risk in the USA. We find that the use of Big 5 auditors is related to less earnings management in Taiwan. We also find that industry specialist auditors are related to less income increasing earnings management, which, to our knowledge, has not been demonstrated by any audit quality and earnings management studies in Taiwan.