Discussant\u27s response to The relative importance of auditing to the accounting profession: Is auditing a profit center?

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/dl_proceedings/1032/thumbnail.jp

A POTENTIAL APPLICATION OF UNCERTAINTY ANALYSIS TO DOE-STD-3009-94 ACCIDENT ANALYSIS

The objective of this paper is to assess proposed transuranic waste accident analysis guidance and recent software improvements in a Windows-OS version of MACCS2 that allows the inputting of parameter uncertainty. With this guidance and code capability, there is the potential to perform a quantitative uncertainty assessment of unmitigated accident releases with respect to the 25 rem Evaluation Guideline (EG) of DOE-STD-3009-94 CN3 (STD-3009). Historically, the classification of safety systems in a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear facility's safety basis has involved how subject matter experts qualitatively view uncertainty in the STD-3009 Appendix A accident analysis methodology. Specifically, whether consequence uncertainty could be larger than previously evaluated so the site-specific accident consequences may challenge the EG. This paper assesses whether a potential uncertainty capability for MACCS2 could provide a stronger technical basis as to when the consequences from a design basis accident (DBA) truly challenges the 25 rem EG

Elevated BMI and male sex are associated with greater underreporting of caloric intake as assessed by doubly labeled water1,2

Background: Inaccuracies in energy intake (EI) measurement hinder identification of risk factors that predict weight gain and evaluation of obesity prevention and treatment interventions. Research has used objective measures of EI to identify underreporting correlates, producing mixed results, suggesting the need to examine novel potential correlates

Impact of Excess Auditor Remuneration on the Cost of Equity Capital around the World

This study examines the relation between excess auditor remuneration and the implied required rate of return (IRR hereafter) on equity capital in global markets. We conjecture that when auditor remuneration is excessively large, investors may perceive the auditor to be economically bonded to the client, leading to a lack of independence. This perceived lack of independence increases the information risk associated with the credibility of financial statements, thereby increasing IRR. Consistent with this notion, we find that IRR is increasing in excess auditor remuneration, but only in countries with stronger investor protection. Finding evidence of a relation only in stronger investor protection countries is consistent with the more prominent role of audited financial statements for investors' decisions in these countries. In settings in which investors are less likely to rely on audited financial statements and instead rely on alternative sources of information (i.e., in countries with weaker investor protection), the impact of client-auditor bonding should have less of an effect on investors' decisions.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Big 4 Audit Fee Premiums for National and City-Specific Industry Leadership in the United Kingdom:Additional Evidence

This study investigates the relationship between Big 4 auditor industry specialisation and audit pricing in the U.K. in a period of many changes having taken place in the market for audit services. Using a large dataset between 2004 and 2011, our empirical results show a significantly higher fee premium for the Big 4 firms who are national industry leaders as compared to city-specific industry leaders, and that the fee premium for industry leadership is only earned by the city-specific industry leaders if and when they are also the national leaders. Neither the national nor city level industry leadership alone is priced anymore in the U.K. audit market. These findings hold for the pre- and the post-GFC period only and for a number of additional analyses. The evidence suggests that the Big 4 industry leadership in the U.K. has moved away from the previously documented premium for the Big 4 cityspecific industry leadership alone, and is now driven solely by the joint Big 4 industry expertise at the national and city-specific levels concurrently. The study’s results indicate that there is a progression from city-specific industry expertise to national-specific industry expertise, and they imply that there has been an improvement in the sharing and transferability of industry knowledge and expertise among the city offices of the Big 4 firms in the U.K. in the period of investigation