Audit size and earnings value relevance in Malaysia

We examine the difference in audit quality between Big 4 audit firms and non-Big 4 audit firms, whereby we us earnings value relevance as a proxy for audit quality. Our sample is non-financial firms listed on Bursa Malaysia. Based on 4, 127 firm-year observations over the period 2003-2012, we find that earnings of firms audited by Big 4 audit firms are more value relevant that earnings of firms audited by non-Big 4 audit firms.This is evidenced by higher regression coefficient on earnings and coefficient of determination, the adjusted R2, for firms audited by Big 4 audit firms. Our results indicate that audit is of higher quality for Big 4 audit firms.