Auditor Industry Specialization and Market Valuation of Earnings and Earnings Components: Empirical Evidence from Firms Listed in Tehran Stock Exchange

Abstract

Since the reliability of financial statements (including earnings and its components) depends on the audit quality to a large extent, understanding how market considers audit quality when valuating earnings and its components is of great importance. Thus, this study investigates the impact of auditor industry specialization, as a criterion for audit quality, on market valuation of earnings and earnings components. The sample of the study includes 155 firms listed in Tehran Stock Exchange over the 2006 to 2013 period, and the panel data regression method is used to process and test the hypothesis. The results indicate that market valuates earrings and its components (including total accruals, discretionary accruals, and operating cash flow) positively. Meanwhile, the moderating role of auditor industry specialization and audit firm’s size was not verified in this valuation.