The Effect of Audit Partner on Accounting Comparability

Abstract

This study examines the effect of audit partner on accounting comparability. I find that a pair of companies audited by the same partner exhibit greater comparability than a pair of companies audited by two different partners. The audit partner effect is much greater than audit firm effect, suggesting the importance of investigation at the partner level. In addition, I find that accounting comparability between a pair of client firms is greater when they are audited by the same partner in non-Big 4 auditor firms than when they are audited by the same partner in Big 4. The finding implies that Big 4 maintain relatively similar and comparable quality of audit service across different clients and partners than non-Big 4 audit firms do. As a result, among non-Big 4 audit firms, the effect of an individual audit partner is relatively more important. Overall, these results provide some evidence about the individual audit partners effect on accounting comparability and the variability of audit quality in Big 4 versus non-Big 4 auditors.