Mark Schelker
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Item type:Publication, Auditor Expertise: Evidence from the Public SectorThis paper is the first attempt to study the relationship between public auditor expertise and fiscal performance. I find that states requiring the auditor to hold a professional degree feature significantly higher credit ratings and lower expenditures and debt.Type:journal articleJournal:Economics LettersVolume:116Issue:3Scopus© Citations 12 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, The influence of auditor term length and term limits on US state general obligation bond ratingsImproving transparency and enabling the principal to hold its agents accountable is a major issue in any principal agent relationship. This paper focuses on the role of public auditors in this task and presents evidence on the impact of auditor term length and term limits on government performance measured by state credit ratings at the US State level. I find no clear evidence for the influence of auditor term length, but strong evidence for a positive and significant influence of term limits on state credit ratings. Auditors who face a binding term limit are associated with higher credit ratings.Type:journal articleJournal:Public ChoiceVolume:150Issue:1-2Scopus© Citations 16 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Auditors and Fiscal Policy : Empirical Evidence on a Little Big InstitutionVarious political institutions designed to control the government have been analyzed in the academic literature. However, an important institution has been neglected so far: independent auditing institutions with an extended mandate to audit the budget draft and individual policy proposals. We argue that such auditors improve transparency and provide essential information on the impact of policy proposals on common pool resources, which leads to less wasteful spending. We empirically analyze the impact of such auditors on fiscal policy at the Swiss local level. Auditors who can evaluate and criticize policy proposals ex ante to policy decisions, significantly reduce the general tax burden and public expenditures. The results are similar for different datasets and robust to various changes in the econometric specification.Type:journal articleJournal:Journal of Comparative EconomicsVolume:38Issue:4Scopus© Citations 31