We examine the relationship between returnee chief executive officers (CEOs) and audit fees in China using robust econometric modeling with 25,630 firm-year observations between 2008 and 2020. A returnee CEO is a Chinese CEO who has previously worked or studied outside mainland China. Consistent...

The economic literature documents that the investment rate in intangible assets, including intellectual property (IP), has far outpaced that of tangible assets for several decades. In this context, our research delves into the impact of self-created intangible assets on the auditor's risk...

Big Four accounting firms increasingly focus on non-audit services. Failures in these services may impair the accounting firm’s reputation as an auditor. They may negatively affect the Big Four, its clients, and client stakeholders. From the perspective of critical scholarship, it is vital to...

This research contributes to understanding the spillover effect of customer digital transformation along the supply chain. We take a supply chain relationship perspective to explore the influence of customers' digital transformation on suppliers' audit fees and find a significant reduction in...

This study investigates whether the presence of rookie independent directors (rookie IDs) is associated with audit fees and finds a positive association. Moreover, the positive effect of rookie IDs on audit fees is accentuated for firms whose rookie IDs have no academic background, are appointed...

The primary objective of this research was to investigate the potential moderating role of audit fees in the relationship between audit committee characteristics and earnings management. Specifically, this study aimed to establish connections between audit committee features, such as committee...

Purpose This study explores how auditors' emotions, specifically negative moods triggered by flight delays, impact auditing quality. Design/methodology/approach Utilizing flight delays during audit assignments as a mood indicator, weather conditions at departure airports serve as an instrumental...

We examine the impact of listing via a reverse merger (RM) on audit fees, which can serve as an indicator of a firm’s perceived risk. Using a manually assembled dataset of Chinese companies from 2010-2019, we find that RMs tend to pay higher audit fees than their counterparts who undertake an...

This study examines whether the presence of rookie independent directors (IDs) is associated with audit fees.We find that the presence of rookie IDs increases firm’s audit fees. Moreover, the positive effect of rookie IDs on audit fees is accentuated for firms whose rookie IDs serve for audit...

We investigate the association of location-specific severity of the 2019 Coronavirus pandemic (COVID) with changes in audit fees and delays following the pandemic’s onset. Employing data on lengths of stay-at-home (S@H) mandates to proxy for COVID’s disrupting effects on audits, we find that...

PurposeThe main aim of this paper is to examine auditor choice and audit fees in family firms on the Tehran Stock Exchange.Design/methodology/approachThe hypotheses set are tested by analysing all firms except financial firms listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange for the period of 10 years, using...

In 2011, the largest banks were designated as Global Systemically Important Banks (GSIBs) by the Financial Stability Board. While these banks face closer supervision and additional constraints, they also benefit from an implicit guarantee from their governments. The changed environment for these...

The conventional view in accounting is that diversification increases audit complexity and, in turn, audit fees. Conversely, the coinsurance effect of diversification hypothesis suggests that combining multiple business segments with imperfectly correlated earnings provides a coinsurance effect...

We examine differences in audit scope between family and non-family firms in Israel, using a unique database that includes both external and internal audit fees, hours, and billing rates. Consistent with prior literature, we argue that the number of audit hours reflects an auditor’s effort,...

This paper studies a recent legal reform in Germany, which aims to lower commission rates of real estate agents by raising the cost salience of sellers. I find that the reform has backfired and real estate agents have exploited the transition to increase their commission rates. The findings...

Restrictions on certifiers' fee structures are irrelevant for maximizing their profits and trade efficiency, and for the implementability of (monotone) distributions of rents. The irrelevance results exploit that certification schemes involve two substitutable dimensions-the fee structure and...

This study investigates the competitive strategies of the international Big 4 audit firms when faced with regional competition from the local Big 6 audit firms. We find that for the Big 4, competition reduces their audit fee premiums and forces them to recruit high-risk clients, while does not...

This study examines the impact of managerial ownership on audit fees in a context of concentrated ownership and poor investor protection. Using samples of Portuguese and Spanish listed companies for the period 2010-2021, the results of this research suggest that there is a non-linear...

Over the last decades, research on the relationship between audit committees (ACs) and audit fees (AFs) has been increasing. Although numerous scholars have studied this topic, to the best of our knowledge, there is no systematic literature review (SLR) that provides a synthesized state of...

The objective of the study is to examine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on audit fees and delays in the release of audit reports among the publicly listed entities in Ghana. The study sampled 35 listed firms over 5 years from 2017 to 2021 by extracting data from the annual report of the...

This study examines the moderating effect of audit fee on the relation-ship between board structure and the likelihood of financial statements fraud (LFSF). The study uses the logistic regression and a sample of 15 manufacturing firms listed within the East African Community partner states from...

This study investigates if a gender effect exists on the audit fees associated with the presence of women in roles closely related to the audit process. The analysis is based on the largest European corporations studied between 2016 and 2018. The results show that firms with female chief...

We examine the risk-preparing benefits of Chinese audit firms' professional indemnity insurance (PII) and professional risk fund (PRF) by using the Notice on Adjusting the Application Requirement of Audit Firms for Securities Qualifications as an exogenous shock. This policy requires audit firms...