Successful PhD Milestones: Two Strong Research Presentations at the Centre
Last week, the Centre celebrated two important milestones as PhD students Mette Borg Væsel and Rasmus Dahl successfully presented their first-year and second-year PhD projects, respectively.
The presentations showcased the breadth and societal relevance of the research currently being conducted within the Centre, while also highlighting the strong methodological foundations of both projects.
Understanding the Human Side of Auditing
In her first-year PhD presentation, Mette Borg Væsel presented her project Behavioral Traits and Audit Quality, which examines how individual characteristics of auditors shape audit outcomes.
Her first paper investigates whether differences in audit quality commonly attributed to auditor gender may instead reflect underlying differences in risk preferences. By combining unique administrative data from Statistics Denmark with innovative econometric methods, the project seeks to provide new insights into the behavioral drivers of audit quality.
The broader PhD project explores how behavioral traits influence auditors’ decision-making and professional judgments, contributing to a growing research agenda that integrates behavioral perspectives into auditing research.
Professional Responsibilities After Major Life Events
In his second-year PhD presentation, Rasmus Dahl presented the paper Auditors After Loss: Client Portfolios and Career Decisions.
The paper examines how severe personal life events, specifically the loss of a close family member, influence auditors’ professional responsibilities and attachment to the profession. Using comprehensive Danish register data and a rigorous research design, the study investigates changes in auditors’ client portfolios, workloads, and career decisions following bereavement.
The project contributes to the literature on auditor labor markets and professional work by highlighting how personal capacity constraints may affect performance and career trajectories in highly demanding occupations.
Advancing Research Through Novel Data and Methods
Although addressing different research questions, both projects share a common interest in understanding how individual circumstances and characteristics influence professional behavior and decision-making. The studies also demonstrate the value of combining rich Danish register data with advanced empirical methods to generate new insights into auditing and professional services.
We congratulate Mette and Rasmus on reaching these important PhD milestones and thank the discussants, supervisors, and colleagues who contributed valuable feedback during the presentations. We look forward to following the continued development of their research in the years ahead.