Analyzes the report "Public Accounting Firms: Mandated Study on Consolidation and Competition," which focused on the implications of the mergers of accounting firms of Ernst & Young, Deloitte & Touche, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers for smaller firms, released by the U.S. General Accounting Office in July 2003. Status of the competition among audit firms; Limitations of a pure-competition model of the audit market structure which was used to address the observed concentration in the market for audit services; Impact of the merger on public companies.