The Effect of Audit Quality on the Audit Adjustments to Earnings

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role and impact of audited quality indicators on the amount of audited earnings corrections.

To measure the audit quality, three indicators, auditor tenure, auditor size and auditor fees were used. Research hypotheses based on collected data from 128 companies accepted in Tehran Stock Exchange during 2013 to 2018 were tested using combined regression analysis.

The results of the test showed that there is a significant positive relationship between the auditor tenure and auditor industry specialization with audit adjustments to earnings, but there is a negative and meaningless relationship between the auditor fees, auditor size and auditor rate with audit adjustments to earnings. To further analyze, the effect of audit quality on the downward audit adjustments to earnings was also examined. Evidence indicates that there is a significant positive relationship between auditor tenure and auditor industry specialization with downward audit adjustments to earnings and there is a significant negative relationship between auditor size and auditor rate with downward audit adjustments to earnings.

Originality/Value:

In this research, five indicators of auditor tenure, auditor size, auditor rank, auditor specialization in industry and auditor fee have been used as criteria for audit quality.