Three Studies on Key Audit Matters and Going Concern Audit Report Disclosures

This three-paper thesis investigates how financial statement users are reacting to Key Audit Matters (KAMs) and the reporting of going concern. The first two experiments investigate whether the judgements of non-professional investors differ in response to an actual “material uncertainty” in a Material Uncertainty Related to Going Concern (MURGC) paragraph and a “close call” in a Key Audit Matter (KAM). The third study uses archival data to examine whether KAMs affect the forecasting behaviour of financial analysts.