Audit concentration in the Brazilian capital market

• Autor(a) principal: Dantas, José Alves
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Outros Autores: Chaves, Simone de Mesquita Teixeira, Sousa, Gersonete de Araujo, da Silva, Eduardo Monteiro
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista de contabilidade e organizações
• Texto Completo: https://www.revistas.usp.br/rco/article/view/45398
• topic: Auditoria; Concentração; Mercado de Capitais; Big Four; Competitividade.; Audit; Concentration; Capital Market; Big Four; Competitiveness.

This paper is aimed at evaluating the degree of independent audit services concentration in the Brazilian capital market between 2000 and 2009, and raising positive and negative aspects associated with this concentration. The empirical tests were based on the number of customers in the portfolio, total assets and net revenues of the companies listed at Bovespa. Using the benchmark parameters of the Brazilian antitrust authorities, no evidence that the audit market concentration in Brazil enables the coordinated exercise of market power was found. Using the criteria of the U.S. antitrust authorities, it was found that the audit market is concentrated in Brazil, with mixed results as to the level of concentration. Regarding the impacts of concentration, the duality related to the hypothesis structure-conduct-performance (HEP) and efficient structure (HEE) prevails in the literature. The first assumes that a more concentrated industry will behave opportunistically, while the second predicts that the concentration is due to the elimination of less efficient institutions for more efficient ones.