Does considering key audit matters affect auditor judgment performance?

This paper investigates the potential impact of considering key audit matters (KAM) in line with the new IAASB International Standard on Auditing ISA 701 on auditor judgment performance related to goodwill impairment testing. Our study uses a 2x2 between-subjects experiment based on a goodwill impairment testing case. In this experiment with 157 auditors from two Big4 audit firms in Germany, we manipulated the two independent variables client pressure (high vs. low) and KAM consideration (present vs. absent). Client pressure was manipulated through two different components, client importance and client opposition to making audit adjustments. In the condition in which KAM consideration is present, participants were required to assess the likelihood that they will communicate matters regarding the estimation of the recoverable amount in a separate KAM section of the independent auditor’s report. We opposed this condition with a condition in which participants were only required to assess the likelihood that they will communicate matters regarding the estimation of the recoverable amount with those charged with governance (KAM consideration absent). As dependent variables, we captured skeptical judgment and action as two different facets of auditor judgment performance. Our results suggest that auditors’ reaction to our client pressure manipulation is rather weak (and in fact turns out to be insignificant). If at all, auditors seem to become slightly more skeptical in their judgments and actions when client pressure is high, which might suggest that a reasonableness constraint has been triggered. Furthermore, we find that auditors exhibit significantly less skeptical judgment (and at least possibly also action) when KAM consideration is present than when KAM consideration is absent. This finding suggests that, when considering KAM and due to moral licensing, auditors are more willing to acquiesce to their clients’ desired accounting treatments

Concept of the Munich/Augsburg Consortium Precision in Mental Health for the German Center of Mental Health

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) issued a call for a new nationwide research network on mental disorders, the German Center of Mental Health (DZPG). The Munich/Augsburg consortium was selected to participate as one of six partner sites with its concept “Precision in Mental Health (PriMe): Understanding, predicting, and preventing chronicity.” PriMe bundles interdisciplinary research from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU), Technical University of Munich (TUM), University of Augsburg (UniA), Helmholtz Center Munich (HMGU), and Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry (MPIP) and has a focus on schizophrenia (SZ), bipolar disorder (BPD), and major depressive disorder (MDD). PriMe takes a longitudinal perspective on these three disorders from the at-risk stage to the first-episode, relapsing, and chronic stages. These disorders pose a major health burden because in up to 50% of patients they cause untreatable residual symptoms, which lead to early social and vocational disability, comorbidities, and excess mortality. PriMe aims at reducing mortality on different levels, e.g., reducing death by psychiatric and somatic comorbidities, and will approach this goal by addressing interdisciplinary and cross-sector approaches across the lifespan. PriMe aims to add a precision medicine framework to the DZPG that will propel deeper understanding, more accurate prediction, and personalized prevention to prevent disease chronicity and mortality across mental illnesses. This framework is structured along the translational chain and will be used by PriMe to innovate the preventive and therapeutic management of SZ, BPD, and MDD from rural to urban areas and from patients in early disease stages to patients with long-term disease courses. Research will build on platforms that include one on model systems, one on the identification and validation of predictive markers, one on the development of novel multimodal treatments, one on the regulation and strengthening of the uptake and dissemination of personalized treatments, and finally one on testing of the clinical effectiveness, utility, and scalability of such personalized treatments. In accordance with the translational chain, PriMe’s expertise includes the ability to integrate understanding of bio-behavioral processes based on innovative models, to translate this knowledge into clinical practice and to promote user participation in mental health research and care

Mandatory Disclosure of Standardized Sustainability Metrics: The Case of the EU Taxonomy Regulation

Sustainability reporting enables investors to make informed decisions and is hoped to facilitate the transition to a green economy. The European Union's taxonomy regulation enacts rules to discern sustainable activities and determine the resulting green revenue, whose disclosure is mandatory for many companies. In an experiment, we explore how this standardized metric is received by investors relative to a sustainability rating. We find that green revenue affects the investment probability more than the rating if the two metrics disagree. If they agree, a strong rating has an incremental effect on the investment probability. The effects are robust to variation in investors' attitudes. Our findings imply that a mandatory standardized sustainability metric is an effective means of channeling investment, which complements rather than substitutes sustainability ratings

A comparative study of equity judgements in Lithuania and Norway

A questionnaire-type experiment was conducted in Lithuania and Norway in order to generate two samples suitable for a comparative examination of equity judgements.The results reveal large differences between the two countries. Norwegian probants had a much higher propensity to decide in accordance with Rawls' second principle than had Lithuanian probants. Equity judgements are also strongly dependent on the context of choice. The results are interpreted within a framework describing the formation of social preferences. More specifically, differences in observed equity judgements in the two countries are related to differences in history, past experience and future prospects.

Dopamine metabolism of the nucleus accumbens and fronto-striatal connectivity modulate impulse control

Impulsive-compulsive behaviours like pathological gambling or hypersexuality are a frequent side effect of dopamine replacement therapy in patients with Parkinson's disease. Multiple imaging studies suggest a significant reduction of presynaptic dopamine transporters in the nucleus accumbens to be a predisposing factor, reflecting either a reduction of mesolimbic projections or, alternatively, a lower presynaptic dopamine transporter expression per se. Here, we aimed to test the hypothesis of fewer mesolimbic projections as a risk factor by using dopamine synthesis capacity as a proxy of dopaminergic terminal density. Furthermore, previous studies have demonstrated a reduction of fronto-striatal connectivity to be associated with increased risk of impulsive-compulsive behaviour in Parkinson's disease. Therefore, another aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between severity of impulsive-compulsive behaviour, dopamine synthesis capacity and fronto-striatal connectivity. Eighty participants underwent resting state functional MRI and anatomical T-1-weighted images [mean age: 68 +/- 9.9 years, 67% male (patients)]. In 59 participants, F-18-DOPA-PET was obtained and voxel-wise Patlak slopes indicating dopamine synthesis capacity were calculated. All participants completed the QUIP-RS questionnaire, a well validated test to quantify severity of impulsive-compulsive behaviour in Parkinson's disease. A voxel-wise correlation analysis between dopamine synthesis capacity and QUIP-RS score was calculated for striatal regions. To investigate the relationship between symptom severity and functional connectivity, voxel-wise correlations were performed. A negative correlation was found between dopamine synthesis capacity and QUIP-RS score in the nucleus accumbens (r = -0.57, P = 0.001), a region functionally connected to the rostral anterior cingulate cortex. The connectivity strength was modulated by QUIP-RS, i.e. patients with more severe impulsive-compulsive behaviours had a weaker functional connectivity between rostral anterior cingulate cortex and the nucleus accumbens. In addition, cortical thickness and severity of impulsive-compulsive behaviour were positively correlated in the subgenual rostral anterior cingulate cortex. We found three factors to be associated with severity of impulsive-compulsive behaviour: (i) decreased dopamine synthesis capacity in the nucleus accumbens; (ii) decreased functional connectivity of the rostral anterior cingulate cortex with the nucleus accumbens; and (iii) increased cortical thickness of the subgenual rostral anterior cingulate cortex. Rather than a downregulation of dopamine transporters, a reduction of mesolimbic dopaminergic projections in conjunction with a dysfunctional rostral anterior cingulate cortexa region known to play a key role in impulse control-could be the most crucial neurobiological risk factor for the development of impulsive-compulsive behaviours in patients with Parkinson's disease under dopamine replacement therapy