The costs and benefits of retirement policies at U.S. audit firms |
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| Institution: | 1. University of Colorado Denver, 1475 Lawrence Street, Denver, CO 80202, USA;2. Bentley University, 175 Forest Street, Waltham, MA 02452, USA;3. Northeastern University, 404 Hayden Hall, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA;1. Department of Accounting, Box 8113, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-8113, United States;2. Department of Management, Ca’ Foscari University, Cannaregio 873, 30121 Venice, Italy;1. School of Business, University of Connecticut, 2100 Hillside Rd., Unit 1041A, Storrs, CT 06269, United States;2. College of Business, Colorado State University, 501 W. Laurel St., Fort Collins, CO 80523, United States;1. Oregon State University, United States;2. Purdue University, United States;1. Data & Text Mining Laboratory, Jerusalem School of Business Administration, Israel;2. Rutgers Business School – Newark and New Brunswick, Rutgers University, Department of Accounting and Information Systems, United States;3. Stern School of Business Administration, New York University and, QMA LLC, United States;4. Freeman College of Management, Bucknell University, United States;1. University of Richmond, Richmond, VA 23173, United States;2. Bentley University, Waltham, MA 02452, United States |
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| Abstract: | The mandatory retirement age within U.S. Big 4 audit firms ranges from 55 to 62, which has attracted controversy and legal scrutiny. The potential costs of an earlier retirement age include the loss of established networks, experience, and expertise. However, studies in non-U.S. jurisdictions conclude that partners nearing retirement disengage from their work, which manifests in lower audit quality. Using intensive hand-collected data on the age of 3,148 U.S. audit partners, we provide the first evidence of the costs and benefits of mandatory retirement policies at U.S. audit firms. We find that audit quality does not vary, but that fees are significantly higher for U.S. partners approaching retirement. These findings suggest that U.S. mandatory retirement policies are forcing out experienced revenue earners that are producing audit quality equivalent to younger partners. Additional analysis reveal that partner retirements are mechanisms to promote and grow the client portfolios of younger and female audit partners, and therefore increase partner diversity. Our additional analysis of non-U.S. audit partners leading audits of U.S. listed companies shows that partners approaching retirement are associated with lower audit quality across certain measures. This suggests that the audit quality of older U.S. partners is superior to their non-U.S. counterparts. |
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| Keywords: | PCAOB Form AP Audit partner Partner characteristics Age Mandatory retirement |
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