Using the market values of audit partners’ houses as a measure of their personal wealth, we fnd that wealthier U.S. partners provide higher-quality audits, as evidenced by fewer material restatements, fewer material SEC comment letters, and higher audit fees. A battery of falsifcation tests shows that these fndings are not driven by the matching of wealthier partners with clients with higher fnancial reporting quality. Our additional analyses suggest two explanations: greater personal wealth both incentivizes partners to exert more efort in delivering high-quality audits and reveals partners’ audit competenc
