An Experimental Test of the Relation Between Audit Structure and Audit Effectiveness‪.‬

INTRODUCTION For many firms, the audit process became increasingly structured during the 1970s and 1980s. Dirsmith and McAllister [1982] view this increased structure as a defense against the threat of lawsuits, growing competition in the auditing profession, and high staff turnover. Structured decision aids, as a factor in a more structured audit approach, are designed to focus the auditor on relevant information to improve effectiveness, and to improve audit efficiency by eliminating the time needed to develop or organize individual approaches to the audit problems. Supporting the efficiency hypothesis, Gist [1994] showed that audit pricing by firms with a structured audit approach is lower, on average, than firms with an intermediate or unstructured audit approach.