Events

Mr. Qingkai Dong
Ph.D. Candidate in Accounting
Columbia University

This paper investigates whether the audited financial statements of US independent school districts affect the districts’ public provision of education services. Exploiting an increase in the regulatory threshold that exempts the school districts from preparing audited financial statements after 2015, I compare the newly exempted school districts with those that have never been exempted and those that have always been exempted. I find that the newly exempted school districts experience deteriorating financial and academic performance, population outflows, housing price decreases, and shrinking local tax revenues after the threshold increase. The evidence suggests that audited financial statements enhance the functioning of school districts.