The purpose of this study is to investigate if audited financial statements adds any value for firm in the private debt market. Using an instrumental variable method, we find that firms with audited financial statements on average save 1.66 percentage points on cost of debt compared to firms with unaudited financial statements. We also find that using the big, well known auditing firms does not yield additional cost of debt benefits. Lastly, we find that the effect of audit on cost of debt varies between industries. As such, we find that firms in industries that have been identified in previous studies to have a more complex information structure and therefore more complex auditing process also save more on cost of debt relative to other industries when being audited.
Forthcoming