La rotazione obbligatoria del revisore contabile. Un'indagine empirica nel panorama italiano

[Autom. eng. transl.] The aim of this work is to investigate the effectiveness of the rotation rule mandatory of the auditor as a mechanism to improve the quality of the service audit provided to the client in a particular context, the Italian one, where the mandatory rotation requirement is present both for the accounting firm and for the partner responsible for the assignment. Analyzing a sample of non-financial companies listed in Italy in the period 2006-2010, this study demonstrates how the mandatory rotation rule improves the quality of the audit service only when implemented at the level of the partner responsible for the audit and not, therefore, at the level of the auditing firm. This result is consistent with what some international authors hypothesize according to which the costs associated with the mandatory rotation rule, such as loss of customer-specific know-how, coordination costs, etc. they are minimized in the case of rotation of the partner only. This work constitutes an important contribution for international legislators, that, also following the financial scandals of the last few decades that have tarnished the role of the auditing activity as an independent entity capable of improving quality of the information provided to the market, are considering the introduction of the mandatory rotation rule within their own jurisdictions