Authors:

  • Abigail Allen
  • Karthik Ramanna

Excerpt

The Auditing Oligopoly and Lobbying on Accounting Standards. Abigail M. Allen, Karthik Ramanna, August 19, 2013, Paper. “Since at least the 1970s, the audit market in the U.S. has functioned as an oligopoly, with a few large firms providing audit services for the vast majority of public companies. The past twenty-five years have witnessed a steady tightening of the oligopoly, with the number of big audit firms (hereafter, the Big N) declining from eight in the 1980s to four by 2002, while their combined market share has remained largely unchanged (e.g., GAO 2008). The tightening oligopoly in auditing is…” Link