Fisher School lands grant from EU for new research

Gainesville, Fla. – The Fisher School of Accounting has been awarded a grant by the European Union for a new research project on auditing standards. The study will be conducted by the International Center for Research in Accounting and Auditing (ICRAA) housed in the Fisher School.

W. Robert Knechel, Ernst & Young Professor of Accounting and director of the ICRAA, will be heavily involved in the study “Evaluation of the differences between International Standards on Auditing (ISA) with the standards of the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.” The project will be conducted in cooperation with the Maastricht Accounting, Auditing, and Information Management Research Center (Maastricht University, Netherlands).

The secondary goal of the project is to assess the incremental costs, if any, for EU companies listed on one or more US financial markets. According to Knechel, of specific concern is the potential cost of competing sets of standards for the audit of multinational companies based in Europe, especially given the divergence between US-based standards promulgated by the Public Companies Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and International Standards on Auditing issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB).

“The hope is that the project will eventually assist with the implementation of the revised 8th Directive on the statutory audit throughout Europe,” says Knechel.

The grant is sponsored by the Internal Markets and Services unit of the European Commission.