Audit Partner Education and Audit Quality

ABSTRACT Research on audit engagement partner characteristics has expanded rapidly since disclosure of audit engagement partner names was mandated in the U.S. However, there is little research on the effects of the audit engagement partner’s education. We investigate whether audit engagement partners’ educational backgrounds affect audit quality. Specifically, we investigate whether audit engagement partner attainment of graduate degrees, and in particular master’s degrees in accounting, is related to higher audit quality. We find clients audited by partners holding any graduate degree have lower probabilities of restatement, lower discretionary accruals, and lower probabilities of meeting or beating earning benchmarks than clients audited by partners without graduate degrees. We find the same results when audit partners hold master’s degrees in accounting but little evidence of higher quality audits when partners hold other graduate business degrees. Our findings can inform ongoing debates about the relative costs and benefits of the 150-hour CPA licensure requirement.