The Effect of Audit Procedure Extent and Precision on Auditors’ Skeptical Judgments

I investigate how the extent and precision of an audit procedure influence auditors’ responses to errors. The results suggest that while audit procedures with expanded extents are beneficial, this benefit is influenced by the presence of false positives. Specifically, I predict and find that as the extent of an audit procedure expands, auditors will be more likely to recommend audit adjustments. However, this effect is moderated by the presence of false positives. When false positives are absent, auditors are more likely to recommend an adjustment when they use a large extent procedure, however when false positives are present, there is no difference in the likelihood of recommending an adjustment for small and large extent audit procedures. The effect of extent on likelihood judgments is mediated by auditors’ reliability judgments