This study reviews the existing literature on the U.S. peer review system and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) inspection system to assess our knowledge of audit regulation. The traditional self-regulatory system of the accounting profession came to an end, in 2002, when the PCAOB was established to oversee the audit firms of publicly traded companies. This paper contributes to the controversial debate about self-regulation versus independent regulation by analyzing, categorizing, and comparing the research findings on the peer review system and the PCAOB system along three dimensions: the validity of peer reviews and PCAOB inspections, the recognition of reviews and inspections by decision-makers (e.g., investors, bankers, committees), and the effect of reviews and inspections on audit quality. Synthesizing the research on the regulatory regimes suggests that the notion of external quality control, both through peer reviews and government inspections, is positively linked with an improvement of audit quality. At the same time, the analysis indicates that external users do not seem to recognise peer review and PCAOB reports as very useful instruments for decision-making, which is in line with an identified rather skeptical perception of the audit profession on reviews and inspections. Overall, this study reveals that although the academic literature on peer review and PCAOB inspection is extensive it has not produced definitive conclusions concerning various aspects of audit regulation. This paper shows how this blurred picture is due to conflicting research findings, the dominance of the quantitative research paradigm, and unchallenged assumptions within the literature, and concludes by proposing research opportunities for the future.

中文翻译：

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从同行评审到 PCAOB 检查：监管美国的审计质量

本研究回顾了有关美国同行评审系统和上市公司会计监督委员会 (PCAOB) 检查系统的现有文献，以评估我们对审计监管的了解。会计行业的传统自律体系于 2002 年结束，PCAOB 成立，负责监督上市公司的审计公司。本文通过从三个维度分析、分类和比较同行评审系统和 PCAOB 系统的研究结果，为关于自我监管与独立监管的争议性辩论做出贡献：同行评审和 PCAOB 检查的有效性，评审的认可决策者（如投资者、银行家、委员会）的检查，以及审查和检查对审计质量的影响。综合对监管制度的研究表明，外部质量控制的概念，无论是通过同行评审还是政府检查，都与审计质量的提高呈正相关。同时，分析表明，外部用户似乎并不认为同行评审和 PCAOB 报告是非常有用的决策工具，这与审计行业对审查和检查的公认相当怀疑的看法一致。总体而言，这项研究表明，尽管有关同行评审和 PCAOB 检查的学术文献非常广泛，但并未就审计监管的各个方面得出明确的结论。本文展示了这种模糊的图景是如何由于相互矛盾的研究结果、定量研究范式的主导地位、