Antecedents and Consequences of Audit Quality: A Review

Auditing research studies have used several measures of audit quality. In this paper I describe these measures with a view to examining their appropriateness. The discussion stimulates several research questions. My overall theme is that the audit quality measure should be carefully chosen for its appropriateness to the specific dimension of audit quality that is being investigated. I also argue that attention to selection effects, by choosing appropriate settings where selection effects are less likely to be operating, will better advance our knowledge. Some of these appropriate settings are likely to be outside the US.