2023 PCAOB Conference on Auditing and Capital Markets

The PCAOB held its two-day 2023 Conference on Auditing and Capital Markets in Washington, DC on October 5-6, 2023. Open to academics and Ph.D. students, the research conference attracted 359 participants.


Watch PCAOB’s Chief Economist and the Director of its Office of Economic and Risk Analysis Dr. Martin C. Schmalz give an opening presentation at the 2023 PCAOB Conference on Auditing and Capital Markets.

View Dr. Schmalz's presentation slides     Read the news release on the 2023 conference;

Overview

The conference was hosted by the PCAOB's Office of Economic and Risk Analysis and aimed to:

  • Foster rigorous economic research on audit-related topics, including the economic impact of auditing, audit regulation, and audit oversight on capital markets.
  • Inform the academic community about PCAOB activities and developments.
  • Obtain input from the academic community on topics of interest to the PCAOB.

Topics

The conference organizers encouraged the submission of papers on all aspects of auditing corporations, brokers, and dealers as well as the impact of audit regulation and audit oversight. Papers may be theoretical, archival, or experimental in nature.

Topics of interest included (but were not limited to): 

  • Emerging issues in auditing.
  • Risks to audit and financial reporting quality.
  • Economic and audit quality effects of audit regulation and audit oversight.
  • Applications of regulatory economics to auditing.
  • Economic incentives, cognitive biases, and heuristics in auditing.
  • Industrial organization of audit firms, including audit firm structure, market structure and competition, strategic behavior, and the supply of qualified human capital.
  • Diversity, equity, and inclusion in the auditing profession.
  • The role of data and technology in the audit.
  • Effects of audit and financial reporting failures on financial markets.
  • Auditor responsibilities for fraud detection.
  • Audit firm transparency and disclosure of information about the audit.
  • Auditor independence and ethical behavior.
  • Economic effects of the application of auditing standards to audits of emerging growth companies.

Paper Selection

All submitted papers went through a blind review process by a panel of Ph.D. economists from the PCAOB's Office of Economic and Risk Analysis. Following the review process, a program committee consisting of PCAOB staff selected papers for discussion.

Conference Attendance

The conference was held in person at the National Housing Center, 1201 15th Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20005. Attendance was free, and a virtual option was available for remote participation. Academics and Ph.D. students interested in attending can contact the conference organizers at [email protected].