Long-Run Career Consequences for Andersen's Putative Partners

Abstract

The sudden collapse of Arthur Andersen & Co. (Andersen) in 2001–2002 altered the careers of many professionals who were employed by that international accounting firm. Now that many years have passed since that event, some long-run consequences can be quantified. This paper examines the subsequent careers of 267 managers employed by Andersen at that time in seven Midwestern U.S. cities. Benchmarking these results against similarly situated individuals at another large firm, we conclude that ex-Andersen managers were much less likely to continue in large firm employment, stay in public accounting, or achieve partnership status in the profession. However, the professional networks maintained by ex-Andersen people many years after that firm's collapse appear as strong as that of the control sample. Data Availability: Data are available from the first author upon request.