INFORMATION CONTENT OF QUALIFIED AUDIT OPINIONS FOR OVER‐THE‐COUNTER FIRMS

This study investigates the information content of the initial public announce‐ment of an audit qualification for a sample of American firms traded over‐the‐counter. These firms have smaller predisclosure information sets than New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and American Stock Exchange (ASE) firms. The results of research focusing on NYSE and ASE firms cannot, therefore, be extended to the over‐the‐counter (OTC) market. When the qualification is not confined to a ‘bad news’ scenario, a significant market reaction to the announcement is found, indicating that audit qualification announcements for OTC firms do, indeed, have information content.