SUMMARY
In this study, we investigate how highly distressed client auditing experience impacts going concern opinion (GCO) accuracy. Auditing these high-risk clients involves understanding the unique accounting and auditing circumstances surrounding these clients, in addition to exposure to exceptional engagement risks. The GCO accuracy of these distressed clients is especially important for the clients, their outside stakeholders, and auditors alike as any issues with the audit report may induce significant consequences for all parties involved. Using a new measure, distressed client auditing experience, we find consistent evidence that audit offices with more of such experience exhibit a reduced likelihood of both Type I and Type II GCO misclassifications. In addition, this type of auditor experience helps to reduce audit fees, likely through a decreased risk of future litigation. Lastly, we find that this relationship is primarily found in non-Big 4 audit offices.
Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text.
