Ethics Continuing Professional Education Requirements: Determinants and Effects on AICPA Disciplinary Actions

• In Event: Public Interest/ Diversity

Abstract

Due to recent accounting scandals, business and accounting professionals’ ethical behaviors have been heavily scrutinized. In response, a majority of states’ Boards of Accountancy have passed new ethics CPE requirements. We investigate why states chose to implement ethics CPE requirements and find that higher levels of education and increased violent crimes rates result in implementation of ethics CPE. Contrary to expectations, decreased property crime rates and a higher proportion of the state voting for the republican presidential candidate also led to implementation. Since many state Boards implemented ethics CPE with the expectation that the requirements would reduce unethical behavior, we examine the impact of these requirements on AICPA disciplinary actions. In all models, a state choosing to implement ethics CPE saw no decrease in the level of AICPA disciplinary actions. This finding suggests that ethics CPE requirements are not accomplishing the originally intended effect of increased ethical awareness.

Authors

• Ann Boyd Davis, Tennessee Tech University

• Matthew Hoag, Gonzaga University