Although the market for small public company audits has become much less concentrated since 2002, the continuing concentration in the market for larger public companies limits these companies’ auditor choices but does not appear to have significantly affected audit fees. According to our analysis, the largest accounting firms audit 98 percent of the more than 1,500 largest public companies—those with annual revenues of more than $1 billion. In contrast, midsize and smaller firms audit almost 80 percent of the more than 3,600 smallest companies—those with annual revenues of less than $100 million. Larger public companies we surveyed indicated that the.
