The role of asset reliability and auditor quality in equity valuation

This paper brings together the auditor quality, asset reliability and firm valuation literatures by examining the role of auditor quality in equity valuation. The study broadly follows the Richardson et al. (2005) categorization of the reliability of accounting accruals of balance sheet components and conjectures that the role of auditor quality in equity valuation is more pronounced when asset reliability is not high. Auditor quality is measured using reputation, industry specialist and tenure metrics. The underlying assumption is that auditor quality enhances the market's perception of firm value; as such, auditor quality may mitigate the cost of security mispricing documented by Richardson et al. (2005) for low or medium reliability accruals. The results of the study provide some support that high quality auditors contribute to the valuation of equity for assets. It is less clear as to whether the value is more pronounced for low or medium reliability assets.