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Does Effort Pay Off? Evidence From Internal Audit in Israel

Omer Berkman (The Academic College of Tel Aviv, Israel)

Shlomith D. Zuta (The Academic College of Tel Aviv, Israel)

Empirical Research in Banking and Corporate Finance

ISBN: 978-1-78973-398-3, eISBN: 978-1-78973-397-6

Publication date: 12 September 2022

Abstract

The research question we address in this paper is whether the effort invested by the internal auditor in the firm is associated with better firm performance. Our measure of effort is the number of audit hours invested in the firm, and firm performance is measured by the likelihood of a restatement of the firm's financial results. This study is the first to analyze this question, an endeavor made possible by a difference in disclosure requirements regarding internal audit effort between the US and Israel. Our analysis is conducted using hand-collected data on firms traded on Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) during the period 2010–2014. We expect that auditor effort is negatively associated with the likelihood of restatements of the firm's financial results. Indeed, our findings support this hypothesis. We also consider the association between restatements and two audit committee characteristics – the degree of independence and the degree of expertise of its members. However, these associations are not upheld by the data.

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Avri Ravid and John Wald for very helpful feedback and advice. Research assistantship by Omri Zuckerstein is highly appreciated. Special thanks to Yossi Ginossar and Doron Cohen of Grant Thornton, Israel and Kobi Avramov of Tel Aviv Stock Exchange for useful information. We acknowledge the financial support from the Academic College of Tel-Aviv Yaffo.

Citation

Berkman, O. and Zuta, S.D. (2022), "Does Effort Pay Off? Evidence From Internal Audit in Israel", Ferris, S.P., John, K. and Makhija, A.K. (Ed.) Empirical Research in Banking and Corporate Finance (Advances in Financial Economics, Vol. 21), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 101-118. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1569-373220220000021004

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited