James J. Maroney

Social Security Reform: Exploring the Generational and Racial Divide

Increased life expectancies and decreased birthrates have placed enormous financial pressure on the Social Security system. Because significant reforms are needed to ensure its financial solvency, our study examines the acceptability of proposals to reform the system. Given the potentially divergent views suggested by prior research, we selected participants from the following four groups (1) younger black taxpayers, (2) younger white taxpayers, (3) older black taxpayers, and (4) older white taxpayers. While there was agreement among the groups on several of the proposals, in general, the differences between the generations were more pronounced than the differences between the racial groups.

Auditors' Use of Inconsistent Evidence

Analytical procedures are an important audit tool worldwide (ISA 520, SAS 56). Auditors use analytical procedures to develop explanations for unexpected changes in accounts, and evaluate those explanations on the basis of further audit evidence. Research has found that people have difficulty using evidence inconsistent with proposed explanations, and thus may accept explanations that are false. The purpose of this paper is to study how auditors treat evidence inconsistent with analytical procedures explanations. Practising auditors at three levels of experience completed a two?stage task, generating explanations for an initial set of financial information and then revising their explanation list after receiving an expanded information set. Decision processes were captured through verbal protocols. Process analysis showed that the ability to evaluate evidence varied by experience level. Managers and seniors were better than assistants at recognizing inconsistent evidence, while managers outperformed other experience levels in integrating inconsistent evidence. Further, managers generated more and better explanations than other ranks after encountering new information. The implications for auditing research and practice are discussed.