Auditor independence, self-interested behavior and ethics: some experimental evidence
- 作者：Falk ; Haim ; Lynn ; Bernadette ; Mestelman ; Stuart ; Shehata ; Mohamed
- 刊名：Journal of Accounting and Public Policy
- 出版年：1999
- 期刊代码：36_02784254
- 类别：bus
- 出版时间：Winter, 1999
- 卷：18
- 期：4-5
- 页码：395-428
- 文件大小：284 K
摘要
Our paper presents the results obtained in a laboratory environment in which subjects revealed their beliefs about an uncertain state of the world and then participated in a simple task which required them to report on whether the report of a second party is consistent with the subjects’ beliefs. Because maintaining prior judgements (audit independence) which were in disagreement with the second party’s decision (a potential for a qualified audit opinion) were costly to the subject, a situation was created in which the subject might compromise her beliefs at a price. The results suggest that amoral, self-interested profit-maximizing behavior does not generally characterize the subjects in this experiment. Furthermore, subjects compromise their beliefs less often, i.e., breach independence, the higher their scores on a Defining Issues Test, but more often, the greater the cost of adhering to their beliefs.