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The regulation of auditing for privately held firms varies across the world. While countries suchas the United States and Canada impose no general audit requirement for private firms, manyEuropean Union (EU) Member States mandate audits even for small entities. The EU Accounting Directive (2013/34/EU) sets minimum thresholds for audit exemptions but allows MemberStates to adopt stricter national rules, creating variation across the EU. This paper reviews theoretical and empirical literature on the regulation of private-firm auditing. It explores justifications for audit mandates for small private firms, including externalities, behavioral considerations related to tax compliance and financial misconduct, and costs and benefits of voluntaryauditing. In addition, the study reviews legal frameworks for statutory audits in selected EUcountries and highlights how national policies and risk assessments shape audit thresholdsand enforcement strategies. The review concludes by identifying gaps in the literature and suggesting areas for future research.

This study examines whether auditors' task-specific expertise acquired during the initial recognition and valuation of goodwill influences clients' subsequent goodwill accounting. Given the complexity of goodwill valuation, the high degree of managerial discretion involved, and the potential for auditor bias, we hypothesize that auditors-in-charge who serve during a client's acquisition year and thereby acquire client-specific expertise affect the timeliness and magnitude of subsequent goodwill impairments during their remaining tenure. Using data on Swedish auditors and their publicly-listed clients, we find that both the likelihood and magnitude of goodwill impairments increase with the client-level task-specific expertise of the auditor-in-charge. In contrast, evidence for portfolio-level or audit firm-level expertise is weaker and less consistent. However, portfolio-level and audit firm-level expertise are more relevant in homogeneous industries, within the largest audit firm, and among auditors with pre-IFRS regulatory experience. Overall, our findings suggest that audit quality in goodwill accounting is primarily driven by client-level skill acquisition of the individual auditor, whereas the transferability of task-specific knowledge across engagements depends on the industry structure, audit firm scale, and auditors' regulatory training.

This study investigates the evolution of CEO-employee pay disparity following Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) and the moderating role of independent female directors. Using a Difference-in-Differences approach with matched private firms in Sweden, we find that IPOs significantly widen pay disparity, primarily due to increased CEO pay while employee salaries remain unchanged. Independent female directors play a critical role in mitigating this disparity by constraining CEO pay, whereas their absence amplifies the gap. Moreover, pay disparity does not improve firm performance, while boards with independent female directors are positively associated with firm sales and size. These findings underscore the importance of board independence in promoting equitable compensation structures, providing a reassuring solution to the governance challenges of IPO transitions, and enhancing organizational outcomes.

Det hävdas att obligatorisk revision av företag förhindrar brott. I ett forskningsprojekt finansierat av Vetenskapsrådet har ovannämnda författare undersökt om revision av företag minskar antalet brott. Vi har undersökt ett större antal svenska s.k. mikroföretag, som försatts i konkurs. Våra resultat visar att revision inte minskar antalet brott. Revision kan dock ha andra fördelar. Revisorn kan t.ex. uppmärksamma företaget på risker med för hög skuldsättning eller annat risktagande som kan resultera i att företaget kommer på obestånd. Frågan är om ett företag som saknar

I såväl den politiska som juridiska debatten förekommer påståenden om revisorns betydelse för att stävja ekonomisk brottslighet och skatteundandragande. Dessa påståenden har genom åren kommit att bli självklara och ett återkommande mantra utan närmare förklaring. Vilken betydelse har egentligen revisorn för att få mindre aktiebolag som idag inte måste ha revisor att betala skatt?

We study the association between the gender of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the probability that firms go public through an Initial Public Offering (IPO), using data for the full population of Swedish IPO firms from 2005-2017, and matched private firms. We find that firms that go public are less likely to have a female CEO. The results are robust when we test for a change of CEO: firms that switch from a male to a female CEO are less likely to go public, and when we consider the gender balance among the board of directors.