Manuscript Type Empirical Research Question/Issue This study investigates the influence of CEO characteristics on internal control quality in the U.S. Research Findings/Insights Using a sample of 4,374 ExecuComp non‐financial firms, we find that CEO entrenchment and age are significantly associated with a material internal control weakness disclosure (MW) under Sarbanes‐Oxley Section 404 (SOX 404). Our results demonstrate that entrenchment and age may affect CEOs' behavior in response to the SOX 404 internal control requirements. Theoretical/Academic Implications This study provides empirical support for the influence of CEO characteristics on material internal control weakness. As a result, the effects of internal control mechanisms are likely to be decreased in firms with entrenched and younger CEOs, consistent with entrenchment theory. Practitioner/Policy Implications This study offers insights to regulators and lawmakers interested in the effects of CEO characteristics on internal control weakness. Importantly, it points out that CEO entrenchment and age are likely to affect the strength of internal control mechanisms.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between the cost of debt (COD) and auditor industry expertise using Taiwanese data. Since previous studies (Li et al., 2010) have only examined the relation between industry specialization and COD at the audit firm level in western countries, the authors further examine the association between industry specialization and COD at the individual auditor level in an Asian context. Design/methodology/approach The authors use the interest rate on the firm’s debt as a proxy variable for the COD (Francis, Khurana and Pereira, 2005). The authors adopt three different methods to measure industry specialization, which consist of the auditors’ market share in terms of client sales and number of clients, and client assets. Findings The results indicate that the clients of industry specialists at individual auditor levels have a lower COD. Originality/value First, the authors extend the research of Li et al. (2010) and find that the clients of individual auditor industry specialists also have a lower COD. Second, the authors also believe the evidence on the effects of industry expertise at the individual auditor level may have policy implications for regulators and public investors. Finally, in contrast to works carried out in the US market, the authors provide empirical evidence for the relation between industry specialization and COD in an Asian market.

a b s t r a c tWe investigate whether women audit partners earn lower audit fees than their men colleagues. By examining 2002e2011 fee data for audit engagements in Taiwan, where the names of signing audit partners are disclosed, we find that audit engagements with women audit partners are related to significantly lower audit fees than those with men counterparts. Furthermore, we document that such fee difference is aggravated in the industries with fewer women audit partners, cannot be explained by the differences in audit quality and audit reporting lags, and is robust to controlling for firm fixed effects.Our finding provides evidence to support the existence of fee discrimination against women audit partners in Taiwan's auditing industry. Our results should be of interests to audit firms with regard to human resource decisions.