Lesson Learned? A Retrospective Assessment of The Fall of Andersen and it’s Meaning for Accounting Research

• In Event: Public Interest

Abstract

The downfall of Arthur Andersen in 2001-2002 was sufficiently long ago to enable sufficient reflection upon its meaning and consequence. The elapse of time also facilitates the lessons of this event to have been obscured. Certainly for those now entering the profession, the events that brought down a powerful public accounting firm lack personal resonance. This paper first surveys what has been written about Andersen. Finding the literature lacking, a broader analysis is conducted that concludes that Andersen’s sudden collapse ushered in nothing less than a new accounting profession

Author

• Timothy J Fogarty, Case Western Reserve University