Do U.S. Investors Value Foreign Component Auditors?

Abstract

We examine whether investors consider foreign component auditors when assessing the value of U.S. multinational corporations (MNCs), using two sets of Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) international regulatory events: inspection access and inspection reports. We find investors react negatively when the PCAOB is denied access to inspect foreign component auditors in jurisdictions where a U.S. MNC has significant operations and positively when those countries later allow inspection. For foreign component auditors that are inspected, we find investors react positively when they receive clean inspection reports and negatively when they fail to remediate quality control deficiencies. Consistent with PCAOB international oversight providing additional assurance about foreign component auditor quality, our collective results indicate investors consider foreign component auditors when valuing U.S. MNCs.