IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v152y2018i2d10.1007_s10551-016-3284-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Auditee Religiosity, External Monitoring, and the Pricing of Audit Services

Author

Listed:
  • Ferdinand A. Gul

    (Deakin University)

  • Anthony C. Ng

    (Monash University)

Abstract

Based on prior studies which show that firms headquartered in high religiosity counties exhibit high level of business ethics, this study examines whether these firms are associated with low audit risk, and therefore low audit fees. In investigating this relationship, we draw a distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity of auditees. Using a sample of 25,872 U.S. observations from 2003 to 2012, we find that intrinsic religiosity of the auditees is associated with low audit fees after controlling for auditee extrinsic religiosity, social capital, firm-specific characteristics, and county-specific characteristics. Furthermore, we find that external monitoring (institutional ownership and leverage) weakens the negative relationship between auditee intrinsic religiosity and audit fees. Finally, we conclude that the effect of auditor religiosity on audit fees is a regional effect that may affect the relationship between audit fees and auditee intrinsic religiosity.

Suggested Citation

  • Ferdinand A. Gul & Anthony C. Ng, 2018. "Auditee Religiosity, External Monitoring, and the Pricing of Audit Services," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 152(2), pages 409-436, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:152:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1007_s10551-016-3284-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-016-3284-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-016-3284-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-016-3284-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kane, Gregory D. & Velury, Uma, 2004. "The role of institutional ownership in the market for auditing services: an empirical investigation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(9), pages 976-983, September.
    2. S. Brammer & Geoffrey Williams & John Zinkin, 2007. "Religion and Attitudes to Corporate Social Responsibility in a Large Cross-Country Sample," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 71(3), pages 229-243, March.
    3. Barclay, Michael J. & Marx, Leslie M. & Smith, Clifford Jr., 2003. "The joint determination of leverage and maturity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 149-167, March.
    4. K. Parboteeah & Martin Hoegl & John Cullen, 2008. "Ethics and Religion: An Empirical Test of a Multidimensional Model," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 80(2), pages 387-398, June.
    5. Miguel A. Ferreira & Paul A. Laux, 2007. "Corporate Governance, Idiosyncratic Risk, and Information Flow," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(2), pages 951-989, April.
    6. Steve Fortin & Jeffrey A. Pittman, 2007. "The Role of Auditor Choice in Debt Pricing in Private Firms," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(3), pages 859-896, September.
    7. La Porta, Rafael & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1997. "Legal Determinants of External Finance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(3), pages 1131-1150, July.
    8. Hilary, Gilles & Hui, Kai Wai, 2009. "Does religion matter in corporate decision making in America?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(3), pages 455-473, September.
    9. Gul, Ferdinand A. & L. Tsui, Judy S., 1997. "A test of the free cash flow and debt monitoring hypotheses:: Evidence from audit pricing," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 219-237, December.
    10. Berger, Philip G. & Ofek, Eli & Swary, Itzhak, 1996. "Investor valuation of the abandonment option," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 257-287, October.
    11. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2006. "Does Culture Affect Economic Outcomes?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(2), pages 23-48, Spring.
    12. Bushee, BJ & Noe, CF, 2000. "Corporate disclosure practices, institutional investors, and stock return volatility," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38, pages 171-202.
    13. Roland Bénabou & Jean Tirole, 2003. "Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(3), pages 489-520.
    14. David C. Hay & W. Robert Knechel & Norman Wong, 2006. "Audit Fees: A Meta†analysis of the Effect of Supply and Demand Attributes," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(1), pages 141-191, March.
    15. Jay C. Hartzell & Laura T. Starks, 2003. "Institutional Investors and Executive Compensation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(6), pages 2351-2374, December.
    16. McCleary, Rachel & Barro, Robert, 2003. "Religion and Economic Growth across Countries," Scholarly Articles 3708464, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    17. Simunic, Da, 1980. "The Pricing Of Audit Services - Theory And Evidence," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 161-190.
    18. Scott Vitell, 2009. "The Role of Religiosity in Business and Consumer Ethics: A Review of the Literature," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 90(2), pages 155-167, November.
    19. Seetharaman, Ananth & Gul, Ferdinand A. & Lynn, Stephen G., 2002. "Litigation risk and audit fees: evidence from UK firms cross-listed on US markets," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 91-115, February.
    20. Chung, Kee H. & Zhang, Hao, 2011. "Corporate Governance and Institutional Ownership," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(1), pages 247-273, February.
    21. Scott D. Dyreng & William J. Mayew & Christopher D. Williams, 2012. "Religious Social Norms and Corporate Financial Reporting," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(7-8), pages 845-875, September.
    22. Robert J. Barro & Rachel McCleary, 2003. "Religion and Economic Growth," NBER Working Papers 9682, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    23. Agnès Festré, 2010. "Incentives And Social Norms: A Motivation‐Based Economic Analysis Of Social Norms," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 511-538, July.
    24. Chen, Xia & Harford, Jarrad & Li, Kai, 2007. "Monitoring: Which institutions matter?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 279-305, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Costa, Mabel D. & Habib, Ahsan, 2023. "Local creative culture and audit fees," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(2).
    2. Nazia Adeel & Chris Patel & Nonna Martinov-Bennie & Sammy Xiaoyan Ying, 2022. "Islamic Religiosity and Auditors’ Judgements: Evidence from Pakistan," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(2), pages 551-572, August.
    3. Mehdi Khodakarami & Hassan Yazdifar & Alireza Faraji Khaledi & Saeed Bagheri Kheirabadi & Amin Sarlak, 2024. "The Level of Islamic Religiosity of the Local Community and Corporate Environmental Responsibility Disclosure: Evidence from Iran," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 190(2), pages 483-512, March.
    4. Huang, Ruixian & Shi, Yujing & Li, Danyang & Wang, Shuoxiang & Jia, Zhehao, 2024. "Religious atmosphere, seismic impact, and corporate charitable donations in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    5. Chan, Christopher & Ananthram, Subramaniam & Thaker, Keyur & Liu, Yi, 2022. "Do religiosity and ethical principles influence ethical decision-making in a multi-faith context? Evidence from India," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 772-785.
    6. Kumar, Satish & Sahoo, Saumyaranjan & Lim, Weng Marc & Dana, Léo-Paul, 2022. "Religion as a social shaping force in entrepreneurship and business: Insights from a technology-empowered systematic literature review," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    7. Ahsan Habib & Mabel D' Costa & Ahmed Khamis Al‐Hadi, 2023. "Consequences of local social norms: A review of the literature in accounting, finance, and corporate governance," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(1), pages 3-45, March.
    8. Shahid, Ahmad Usman & Patel, Chris & Pan, Peipei, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility, intrinsic religiosity, and investment decisions," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C).
    9. Murat Ocak & Bekir Emre Kurtulmuş & Emrah Arıoğlu, 2024. "Do Individual Auditors from More Religious Hometowns Enhance Audit Quality? Evidence from an Islamic Country," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 190(2), pages 439-481, March.
    10. Cao, June & Ee, Mong Shan & Hasan, Iftekhar & Huang, He, 2024. "Asymmetric reactions of abnormal audit fees jump to credit rating changes," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(2).
    11. Hao, Jie & Pham, Viet Tuan, 2024. "Stuck in traffic: Do auditors price traffic congestion?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(2).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stergios Leventis & Emmanouil Dedoulis & Omneya Abdelsalam, 2018. "The Impact of Religiosity on Audit Pricing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(1), pages 53-78, March.
    2. Sadok El Ghoul & Omrane Guedhami & Yang Ni & Jeffrey Pittman & Samir Saadi, 2012. "Does Religion Matter to Equity Pricing?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 111(4), pages 491-518, December.
    3. Kiridaran Kanagaretnam & Gerald Lobo & Chong Wang, 2015. "Religiosity and Earnings Management: International Evidence from the Banking Industry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(2), pages 277-296, December.
    4. Abdelsalam, Omneya & Dimitropoulos, Panagiotis & Elnahass, Marwa & Leventis, Stergios, 2016. "Earnings management behaviors under different monitoring mechanisms: The case of Islamic and conventional banks," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 132(S), pages 155-173.
    5. Leventis, Stergios & Hasan, Iftekhar & Dedoulis, Emmanouil, 2013. "The cost of sin: The effect of social norms on audit pricing," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 13/2013, Bank of Finland.
    6. Lamia Chourou & Luo He & Ligang Zhong, 2020. "Does religiosity enhance the quality of management earnings forecasts?," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(7-8), pages 910-948, July.
    7. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2013_013 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Leventis, Stergios & Hasan, Iftekhar & Dedoulis, Emmanouil, 2013. "The cost of sin: The effect of social norms on audit pricing," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 152-165.
    9. Boahen, Eric & Mamatzakis, Emmanuel, 2016. "Do Religion, Corporate Governance and BIG 4 Audit Interactions Affect Misclassification?," MPRA Paper 76804, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Leventis, Stergios & Hasan, Iftekhar & Dedoulis, Emmanouil, 2013. "The cost of sin: The effect of social norms on audit pricing," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 152-165.
    11. Jeffrey L. Callen & Xiaohua Fang, 2020. "Local Gambling Norms and Audit Pricing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 151-173, June.
    12. Ales Cornanic & Jiri Novak & Jan Sarapatka, 2018. "Religion, Corporate Governance, and Executive Compensation," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 68(1), pages 34-70, February.
    13. Huang, Ruixian & Shi, Yujing & Li, Danyang & Wang, Shuoxiang & Jia, Zhehao, 2024. "Religious atmosphere, seismic impact, and corporate charitable donations in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    14. Feng Chen & Xiaolin Chen & Weiqiang Tan & Lin Zheng, 2020. "Religiosity and cross‐country differences in trade credit use," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(S1), pages 909-941, April.
    15. Costa, Mabel D. & Habib, Ahsan, 2023. "Local creative culture and audit fees," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(2).
    16. Kun Su, 2019. "Does religion benefit corporate social responsibility (CSR)? Evidence from China," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(6), pages 1206-1221, November.
    17. Chuluunbat Tsendsuren & Prayag L. Yadav & Seung Hun Han & Seongjae Mun, 2021. "The effect of corporate environmental responsibility and religiosity on corporate cash holding decisions and profitability: Evidence from the United States' policies for sustainable development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(5), pages 987-1000, September.
    18. Rami Salem & Ernest Ezeani & Xi Song, 2023. "The relationship between religiosity and voluntary disclosure quality: a cross-country evidence from the banking sector," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 983-1023, April.
    19. Kejing Chen & Wenqi Guo & Yanling Kang & Qingqing Wan, 2021. "Does religion improve corporate environmental responsibility? Evidence from China," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(2), pages 808-818, March.
    20. Xuezhou Zhao & Libing Fang & Ke Zhang, 2022. "How Foreign Institutional Shareholders' Religious Beliefs Affect Corporate Social Performance?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(2), pages 377-401, June.
    21. Adam T. Jones & Lester Hadsell & Robert T. Burrus, 2019. "Capitalist Views and Religion," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 45(3), pages 384-414, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:152:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1007_s10551-016-3284-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.