A note on the effect of PCAOB inspections on the audit quality of triennial CPA firms

This note reports the results of a study conducted regarding PCAOB inspections of triennial CPA firms. The purpose was to see if there was any evidence that inspections contributed to improved audit quality. It was found that small firms did not correct staffing deficiencies, which were related to previous audit deficiencies determined by the PCAOB. However, deficient firms did increase their audit fees significantly more following their first inspections than non-deficient firms. This result is consistent with applying greater audit effort after the inspection.Interestingly, this response does not persist through second inspections.