Using the market values of audit partners’ houses as a measure of their personal
wealth, we fnd that wealthier U.S. partners provide higher-quality audits, as evidenced by fewer material restatements, fewer material SEC comment letters, and
higher audit fees. A battery of falsifcation tests shows that these fndings are not
driven by the matching of wealthier partners with clients with higher fnancial
reporting quality. Our additional analyses suggest two explanations: greater personal
wealth both incentivizes partners to exert more efort in delivering high-quality
audits and reveals partners’ audit competence