Accountants Are Crunched: A Crisis In Oversight And The Rise of Financial FraudMurtagh, Natalie accountingfinancial fraudaccountant shortageCPA shortageAccountingB SThis study sets out to explore the relationship between the declining supply of accountants and whether it causes an increase in accounting fraud. Using a data-driven approach in assessing fraud, the analysis focused on types of fraud that would be most impacted by accountants. The data used was from reported fraud that was tracked by the government. Before performing a regression analysis on the hypotheses, several conditional variables were established and included in the regression analysis to determine if there are other factors that contribute to fraud. The variables of GDP, enforcement actions, and civil monetary penalties were included in the regression analysis along with the decline of accountants. The study revealed that the decline of accountants affects the occurrence of fraud. Ultimately, these findings contribute to the seriousness of the issue of the shortage of accountants.Samuel Burton Bonsall, IV, Thesis SupervisorSamuel Burton Bonsall, IV, Thesis Honors AdvisorShelley Curling, Faculty Readeropen_access2026-01-23T13:53:57Zhttps://honors.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/9923nam5972