Not only who but where : A structural approach of incorporating location into our understanding of the audit market

• In Event: Audit Pricing

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of auditor office location on client and auditor surplus. Using a two-sided matching market model, I find that, while both clients and auditors bear the costs of geographic distance, auditors disproportionately bear costs. Although distance exerts costs on clients, clients incur distance costs to gain auditor expertise. Next, I examine how the stickiness of audit office locations affects equilibrium audit market matches. The immobility of audit office locations results in a market-wide surplus loss of 1.6%, and leaves 8% of clients worse off. In addition, by aggregating individual client-auditor surplus at the MSA and state level, I find that in underserved regions, clients are more likely to choose their second-best auditors, and auditors are more likely to extract rents from clients. Finally, relocating audit offices in overserved regions, such as Detroit and Cincinnati, to underserved regions, such as Austin and Houston, improves market-wide surplus, and therefore, leaves clients and auditors in both regions better off. Overall, this paper contributes to the literature by highlighting how an audit market friction (stickiness in audit office location) affects surplus and auditor matches.

Author

• Seong Jin Ahn, Washington University