As a consequence of the global financial and economic crisis, the European Commission recently reformed the audit market. One objective was to restore public trust in the auditing profession and thus to enhance the audit function. This study investigates whether perceptions of auditor independence and audit quality are influenced by audit firm rotation, auditor retention and joint audits, because regulators argue that these instruments can improve auditor independence and audit quality. Therefore, we conduct an experiment with bank directors and institutional investors in Germany. The results indicate a negative main effect for joint audits on perceived auditor independence, and that a rotation cycle of 24 years marginally significantly impairs participant perceptions of audit quality, compared to a rotation cycle of only ten years. Besides the main effects, planned contrast tests suggest a negative interaction between rotation and joint audit on participant perceptions of auditor independence. Moreover, a negative interaction effect is revealed between rotation after 24 years and retention on perceptions of audit quality. It is particularly noteworthy that we failed to identify a positive impact of the regulatory measures taken or supported by the European Commission on perceptions of auditor independence and audit quality.

中文翻译：

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审计事务所的轮换，审计师保留和联合审计是否重要？−对银行董事和机构投资者感知的实验研究

由于全球金融和经济危机，欧盟委员会最近对审计市场进行了改革。一个目标是恢复公众对审计专业的信任，从而增强审计职能。这项研究调查了对审计师独立性和审计质量的看法是否受审计公司轮换，审计师保留和联合审计的影响，因为监管机构认为这些工具可以改善审计师独立性和审计质量。因此，我们与德国的银行董事和机构投资者进行了一项实验。结果表明，联合审计对公认的审计师独立性具有负面的主要影响，与只有十年的轮换周期相比，24年的轮换周期会严重削弱参与者对审计质量的看法。除主要影响外，计划的对比测试还表明，轮换和联合审核对参与者对审核员独立性的看法具有负面影响。此外，在24年的轮换与保留对审计质量的看法之间显示出负面的交互作用。特别值得一提的是，我们未能发现欧盟委员会采取或支持的监管措施对审计师独立性和审计质量的积极影响。