PCAOB Inspections and the Differential Audit Quality Effect for Big 4 and Non–Big 4 US Auditors*

In this study, we investigate whether the increase in regulatory scrutiny epitomized by the initial PCAOB inspection impacted audit quality differentially for Big 4 and non–Big 4 auditors to better understand the consequences of PCAOB inspections for different audit firm types. Because of competing views on the effect of PCAOB inspections, the relation between PCAOB inspections and the audit quality differential between Big 4 and other auditors is an empirical issue. Empirically, we take the endogenous choice of auditor as a given and utilize a difference‐in‐differences specification that takes into account the staggered timing of the initial PCAOB inspection for different‐sized auditors in the United States. Our results suggest that the initial PCAOB inspection improved audit quality more for Big 4 auditors than for other annually inspected or triennially inspected non–Big 4 auditors. We also examine annually and triennially inspected non–Big 4 auditors separately, and find that the pre‐post Big 4/non–Big 4 differential audit quality effect is more pronounced for the triennially inspected non–Big 4 firms. In the larger context of the highly concentrated US audit market, our findings that PCAOB inspections accentuate the Big 4/non–Big 4 audit quality differential are of potential interest to public company audit clients contemplating an auditor change, investors interested in learning about the consequences of PCAOB inspections, regulators concerned about the Big 4 dominance of the US audit market, and academics investigating audit quality differences.     

CEO Entrepreneurial Leadership and Performance Outcomes of Top Management Teams in Entrepreneurial Ventures: The Mediating Effects of Psychological Safety

This study examines whether the exhibition of entrepreneurial leadership by CEOs within entrepreneurial ventures fosters higher levels of top management team performance and job performance of team members, and whether psychological safety explains such effects. Utilizing four waves of multisource, multilevel data from 262 team members across 56 top management teams, we find that the exercise of entrepreneurial leadership by the CEO leads to higher levels of performance at the team and individual levels, and that psychological safety mediates such relationships.     

“Deja Vu All Over Again:” Constitutional Economics and European legal Integration

Existing theories of regional integration do not satisfactorily explain European legal integration. Like the bears’ porridge, one explains too much, another too little, and yet another requires unnecessary information. Constitutional economics, viewing regional integration as a process producing a constitution, is able to explain both momentum toward and resistance to legal integration in a parsimonious fashion. Further, it produces a unique analysis of the current circumstances of European legal integration, revealing that the Kompetenz–Kompetenz debate addresses the fundamental dilemma of compound republics. This also discloses that European integration has produced a novel answer to this old question.

Second in command: the misunderstood role of the chief operating officer

Asking the question,"What makes a great COO?" is akin to asking "What makes a great candidate for U.S. vice president?" It all depends on the first name on the ticket--the CEO. New research sheds light on this most contingent, and most mysterious, of C-suite jobs. After in-depth conversations with dozens of executives who have held the position and with CEOs who have worked with COOs, the authors have concluded that different views of the COO role arise from the different motives behind creating the position in the first place. There are seven basic reasons why companies decide to hire a COO: to implement the CEO's strategy; to lead a particular initiative, such as a turnaround; to mentor a young, inexperienced CEO; to complement the strengths or make up for the weaknesses of the CEO; to provide a partner to the CEO; to test out a possible successor; or to stave off the defection of a highly valuable executive, particularly to a rival. This tremendous variation implies that there is no standard set of great COO attributes, which makes finding suitable candidates difficult for companies and recruiters alike. Still, certain common success factors came up consistently in the interviews, the most important being building a high level of trust between CEO and COO. Trust comes from meeting obligations on both sides: The COO must truly support the CEO's vision; keep ego in check; and exhibit strong execution, coaching, and coordination skills. The CEO must communicate faithfully, grant real authority and decision rights, and not stymie the COO's career. It's surprising that COOs are not more common. They would be, the authors contend, if there were less confusion surrounding the role. As we continue to demystify that role, more companies will benefit from more effective leadership.     

Market fundamentals versus rational bubbles in stock prices: a Bayesian perspective

Using Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, we decompose the log price‐dividend ratio into a market fundamentals component and a bubble component. The market fundamentals component depends on expectations of future dividend growth and required returns, while the bubble component is assumed to follow a Markov switching model that allows for the possibility of exploding and collapsing regimes. If prior beliefs allow for the possibility of persistent shocks to dividend growth and/or required returns, the posterior distribution suggests the bubble component contributes virtually nothing to the stock price movements over our sample. On the other hand, if one's priors rule out the possibility of persistent shocks to dividend growth and required returns, the bubble component can have a much larger role to play in stock price movements. However, the regime switching behavior of the bubble bears little resemblance to infrequent switching from an exploding bubble regime to a collapsing or dormant bubble regime. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Capture or contract? The early years of electric utility regulation

Jarrell (J Law Econ 21:269?C295, 1978) found that electricity prices fell more slowly in states that adopted state regulation before 1917, suggesting that regulators were ??captured?? by the interests of the regulated electric utilities. An alternative explanation is that state regulation more credibly protected specialized utility assets from regulatory opportunism than did the municipal franchise contracting that preceded it. We test this alternative hypothesis using a panel of data from the U.S. Electrical Censuses of 1902?C1937. We find that the shift from municipal franchise contracting to state regulation was associated with a substantial decrease in investment propensity, an outcome supporting the capture hypothesis.     

Auditor Reporting and Regulatory Sanctions in the Broker‐Dealer Industry: From Self‐Regulation to PCAOB Oversight

The financial security of the investing public relies on high‐quality service by broker‐dealers (BDs), investors' gateway to the financial markets. The SEC has long required auditors to attest to BDs' internal controls and compliance with regulations (including those privately owned). Following the unraveling of the Madoff Ponzi scheme in 2008, the SEC required auditors of all BDs to register with the PCAOB, and Congressional initiatives signaled imminent transition from private (AICPA) to public (PCAOB) oversight. We investigate whether audit quality increased following this transition by measuring whether auditors report material internal control and compliance problems for BD clients where a deficiency presumably existed (i.e., BDs sanctioned by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for transgressions against stakeholders). Overall, we do not find increased reporting quality following the regulatory shift but do observe variation by auditor group and BD ownership. While reporting quality for global network firms (GNFs) increases slightly, lower reporting quality observed prior to the regulatory shift for specialist audit firms (having large BD portfolios but small overall size) is exacerbated afterward. This finding complements results of PCAOB inspections and other research identifying audit quality problems among small, industry‐specialized firms in non‐public client settings. Focusing on deficiencies likely more difficult to detect, we find lower reporting quality for private relative to publicly affiliated BDs prior to PCAOB oversight, and lower reporting quality for very small audit firms relative to GNFs following the regulatory shift.     

The Relationship Among E-service Quality Dimensions,Overall Internet Banking Service Quality,and Customer Satisfaction in the USA

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships of e-service quality dimensions with overall internet banking service quality, and its effect on customer satisfaction in the USA banking industry. The proposed instrument dimensions are identified based on a questionnaire survey conducted in the US. Based on an extensive review of literature, this paper proposed eight dimensions for measuring overall internet banking service quality and its subsequent effect on customer satisfaction. Also, this research uses American internet banking users as survey targets for its empirical studies. The results show significant relationships among the e-service quality dimensions （efficiency, fulfillment, system availability, privacy, assurance/trust, site aesthetics, responsiveness, and contact）, overall internet banking service quality, and customer satisfaction. Little attention has been given in the literature to understanding of the e-service quality dimensions that influence overall internet banking service quality and the specific outcome of customer satisfaction. This paper empirically examines the relationships among the eight e-service quality dimensions, overall internet banking service quality, and customer satisfaction. The findings are important to enable bank managers to have a better understanding of the key e-service quality dimensions of internet banking that affect customer satisfaction. The primary limitations of this study are the scope and size of its sample.     

Business dynamics statistics of High Tech industries

Modern market economies are characterized by the reallocation of resources from less productive, less valuable activities to more productive, more valuable ones. Businesses in the High Tech sector play a particularly important role in this reallocation by introducing new products and services that impact the entire economy. In this paper we describe an extension to the Census Bureau's Business Dynamics Statistics that tracks job creation, job destruction, startups, and exits by firm and establishment characteristics, including sector, firm age, and firm size in the High Tech sector. We preview the resulting statistics, showing the structural shifts in the High Tech sector over the past 30 years, including the surge of entry and young firm activity in the 1990s that reversed abruptly in the early‐2000s.     

A private universal voucher program’s effects on traditional public schools

K-12 education reformers have often cited increases in spending with little noticeable gain in test scores, coupled with the fact that American students lag behind their foreign peers on standardized tests, as a major policy problem. School choice, specifically voucher programs, have emerged as a possible solution to the K-12 education woes. This article focuses on what is commonly referred to as the “systemic effects” of a private voucher program in the Edgewood Independent School District (EISD) in San Antonio, Texas. Using carefully chosen control districts and a robust econometric analysis, we conclude that the CEO Horizon Scholarship Program had small, positive effects on the traditional public schools of EISD. The rate of change growth, however, does slow as the voucher program nears the end of its term indicating that traditional public school participants need to believe that these programs are long term.