The Impact of Client and Auditor Gender on Auditors’ Judgments: A Replication and Extension

Abstract

This study is a replication and extension of a previously published experiment. We replicate an experiment that examines whether an auditor’s judgment is influenced by the gender of a client and the gender of the auditor. We modified the instrument to test whether a potential impairment of auditor independence also impacts an auditor’s judgment. We find equivocal support for the initial experiment; specifically, the client’s gender has a significant effect on auditors’ judgment but we find no impact based on the gender of the auditor. In addition, we find that the potential impairment of the auditor did not impact the auditors’ judgments.