Supplemental datasets for examination of the PCAOB's relationship with the audit profession in the United States

These datasets have been co-submitted to this journal with the research article “A multi-method analysis of the PCAOB's relationship with the audit profession” [1]. The purpose of these datasets is to assist readers of the research article in obtaining further details on two analyses performed therein: a deviant case analysis of the interview data (enclosed here as Dataset 1) and content analysis of disagreement-report pairs (enclosed here as Dataset 2). These datasets could also inform future research into audit regulation by serving as a starting point in developing research ideas or as a context to settings chosen by the researchers for examination. We developed Dataset 1 by examining interviews of eight PCAOB inspectors and six audit partners who were involved in early interactions between the largest firms and the PCAOB for elements of the data that are inconsistent with the explanations and results in the research article. We developed Dataset 2 by identifying audit firm response letters during the period of 2004-2012 where there are one or more instances of explicit disagreement with the PCAOB's inspection results within the response letter. We identified 15 such audit firm response letters and paired them with the subsequent inspection report based on an inspection that started after the audit firm response letter date. We then examined the content of disagreements and the subsequent deficiencies and highlighted issues in these subsequent reports that appear like disagreements.