We next examine attributes of fair value implementation likely to lead to
heterogeneity in auditor efforts. We focus on four attributes of fair value reporting likely to
affect audit fees: the firm’s exposure to fair value reporting; the complexity of the fair value
measurements; whether fair value is recognized on the face of the financial statements versus
disclosed in the footnotes; and the use of alternative non-auditor external monitors in the fair
value measurement process.
First, we examine the firm’s exposure to fair value reporting. Firms with greater
proportions of their primary operating assets reported at fair value may require additional
audit efforts, owing to incremental procedures necessary to confirm additional fair values.
Alternatively, to the extent the audit focuses on the process, firms with greater proportions of
their operating assets reporting under fair value may require lower effort (e.g., due to a lack
of component depreciation or impairment testing, or due to economies of scale arising
through audit of the fair value process versus audit of particular valuation estimates). This
leads to the following hypothesis: