Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Business Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres Is there a gender efect on the quality of audit services? Josep Garcia-Blandon a, ⁎ , Josep Maria Argilés-Bosch b , Diego Ravenda c a IQS School of Management, Universitat Ramon Llull, Spain b Department of Accounting, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain c Management Control, Accounting and Auditing, Toulouse Business School, Spain ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Female auditor Gender diferences Glass ceiling Audit quality Gender specialization ABSTRACT Should we expect a gender efect on the quality of audit services? Both the behavioural economics literature and the glass ceiling for women in the audit profession suggest an afrmative answer to this question. We conduct the study with a sample of Spanish-listed companies for the period between 2008 and 2015 and use the quality of the client's fnancial statements as a proxy for the quality of audit services. The results provide sound and consistent support for a positive female auditor efect on the quality of audit services. Although our fgures suggest that men and women tend to audit diferent types of clients, the results are not driven by these dif- ferences. Moreover, the gender efect occurs from the very frst year of the appointment of a female partner to replace a male auditor. This study may contribute to challenging stereotypes and may be informative for the ongoing political debate regarding the under-representation of women in senior management levels. 1. Introduction The term gender, in the psychology and sociology felds, refers to the eforts of feminists to distinguish between the biological diferences between men and women and the diferences that are determined by social and cultural forces (Welsh, 1992). Hence, while sex diferences suggest the existence of stable intrinsic traits for men and women, the concept of gender explains the efects of social norms on the diferential perceptions between them (Unger, 1990; Welsh, 1992). In the guest editorial to an accounting and gender special issue, Broadbent and Kirkham (2008, p. 465) make the following controversial statement: “(….) though the World has, for some women, changed much over the last 30 years, it has, in some ways, stayed the same, and- for that reason the issue of gender remains just as relevant as it was then”. While it is true that recent decades have observed the entry of women into the accounting profession in substantial numbers and that accounting frms have implemented targeted policies towards supporting women, the top ranks of the accounting profession remain resolutely gendered, showing a clear underrepresentation of women at senior levels (Broadbent & Kirkham, 2008). This situation occurs not only in the accounting pro- fession, as the ongoing political debate within the European Union concerning the under-representation of women in frm management positions demonstrates (Khlif & Achek, 2017). Auditors play a fundamental role in the classical corporate gov- ernance scheme in guaranteeing the quality of fnancial statements. Following the Enron scandal, regulators and policy makers became particularly concerned about the quality of audit services (i.e., the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and, more recently, the Directive 2014/56/EU on audit quality). We investigate whether there exists a gender efect on the quality of audit services. Such an efect could exist, as the psy- chology and behavioural economics literature generally supports that men and women tend to behave diferently (e.g., Costa, Terracciano, & McCrae, 2001; Croson & Gneezy, 2009; Feingold, 1994; Nettle, 2007; Schmitt, Realo, Voracek, & Allik, 2008). The investigation of gender diferences in risk aversion is particularly meaningful for this study. In a review article, Charness and Gneezy (2012) conclude that women are more risk averse than men. This conclusion has potentially serious implications for the job market, mainly in fnancial and accounting felds, where risk aversion is a fundamental issue. According to Ittonen, Vähämaa, and Vähämaa (2013), gender-based diferences in cognitive information-processing, diligence, conservatism, overconfdence and risk tolerance may impact auditor judgements, and consequently, the fnal quality of audit services. Using a sample of Swedish and Finnish companies, the researchers investigate the association between the gender of the auditor and the quality of the fnancial reports of clients and conclude that companies with female auditors tend to have higher fnancial reporting quality. The research question of this study states: Do female auditors pro- vide higher-quality audit services than do male auditors? We conduct the empirical analysis with a sample of Spanish listed companies for the https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.11.024 Received 3 April 2018; Received in revised form 12 November 2018; Accepted 14 November 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author at: IQS School of Management, Universitat Ramon Llull, Via Augusta, 390, 08017 Barcelona, Spain. E-mail addresses: josep.garcia@iqs.edu (J. Garcia-Blandon), josep.argiles@ub.edu (J.M. Argilés-Bosch). Journal of Business Research 96 (2019) 238–249 0148-2963/ © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. T