Do Political Connections Add Value to Audit Firms? Evidence from IPO Audits in China
51 Pages Posted: 30 Apr 2012
Date Written: December 30, 2011
Abstract
Audit firms become politically connected when their partners are appointed to the regulatory committee that screens prospective initial public offering (IPO) companies. Connections with regulators may enable audit firms to gain insights into the regulatory process which can help their clients prepare IPO applications, and lobby for favorable regulatory decisions. These arguments suggest that connections with regulators may help audit firms reduce IPO rejection risk for their clients, thus allowing them to charge higher IPO audit fees and gain more IPO clients. Regulatory committee appointments may benefit non-top tier audit firms more than they do top tier audit firms because reputational concerns are likely to encourage the latter to refrain from helping their clients raise the likelihood of passing the IPO screening process to a level higher than that justified by their clients’ fundamentals. Consistent with these arguments and predictions, the findings of this study show that after their partners are appointed to the IPO screening committee, non-top audit firms significantly increase their IPO audit fees and IPO market share, and reduce IPO rejection risk for their clients, whereas top tier audit firms do not.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
By Mara Faccio
-
Cronyism and Capital Controls: Evidence from Malaysia
By Simon Johnson and Todd Mitton
-
Cronyism and Capital Controls: Evidence from Malaysia
By Simon Johnson and Todd Mitton
-
Do Lenders Favor Politically Connected Firms? Rent Provision in an Emerging Financial Market
By Atif R. Mian and Asim Ijaz Khwaja
-
Political Connections and Corporate Bailouts
By Mara Faccio, Ronald W. Masulis, ...
-
Institutions, Ownership, and Finance: The Determinants of Profit Reinvestment Among Chinese Firms
By Robert Cull and Lixin Colin Xu
-
The East Asia Crisis and Corporate Finances: The Untold Micro Story
-
Political Connections and Preferential Access to Finance: The Role of Campaign Contributions
By Stijn Claessens, Erik Feyen, ...
-
Political Connections and Preferential Access to Finance: The Role of Campaign Contributions
By Stijn Claessens, Erik Feyen, ...