Abnormal returns resulting from the issuance of the auditor's opinion in MILA countries

The Latin American Integrated Market (MILA) has enabled the diversification of investment portfolios and enhanced possibilities for competitiveness in the capital markets of its member countries, thus creating the need for more sophisticated information for risk assessment. In this scenario, the audit report has gained more relevance. This article evaluates the presence of cumulative abnormal returns under the event study methodology for average returns (BHAR) in the MILA stock price between 2015 and 2018 derived from the issuance of the auditor's opinion. By employing this quantitative approach, it was possible to determine that the auditor's opinion, in any form (with or without caveats), does not have a statistically significant effect on MILA's cumulative abnormal returns during the examined period. This finding demonstrates that the auditor's opinion has no impact on the companies' asset prices.