Prior research on audit experience focuses on behavioral studies that are conducted by
running experiments. Although these studies provide evidence on the role of experience in
completing specific audit tasks, they do not shed light on how experience affects a complete
audit engagement. We conduct an archival study to examine the effect of audit experience
on audit fees and audit quality. Using unique data from China, where the signees of
the audit report can be identified and linked with a government database containing personal
information about certified public accountants, we find that experience is positively
associated with audit fees and negatively associated with absolute discretionary accruals.
Furthermore, we extend the research on personal characteristics of audit partners by considering
the incremental effects of gender, education, engagement tenure, industry specialization,
and client importance after controlling for overall audit experience. Overall, our
results suggest that the auditors’ personal characteristics may serve as a signal of the level
of care that will be exercised during the audit process. Our results also have implications
for China’s recently announced regulation that would require localization of Big 4 offices in
China