IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/102683.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Are audit fees discounted in initial year audit engagements?

Author

Listed:
  • Barua, Abhijit
  • Lennox, Clive S.
  • Raghunandan, Aneesh

Abstract

Many studies report that audit fees are discounted in the year of an auditor change and regulators have long been concerned that such fee discounting could impair audit quality. We find significant bias in the way studies have tested for fee discounting. The bias exists because interim procedures are usually performed by both the predecessor and successor auditors but only the successor’s fee needs to be disclosed. Accordingly, the disclosed fee during the auditor change year usually relates to a partial year of auditing services. We find that the evidence for fee discounting disappears after correcting for this measurement bias.

Suggested Citation

  • Barua, Abhijit & Lennox, Clive S. & Raghunandan, Aneesh, 2020. "Are audit fees discounted in initial year audit engagements?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 102683, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:102683
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/102683/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Badolato, Patrick G. & Donelson, Dain C. & Ege, Matthew, 2014. "Audit committee financial expertise and earnings management: The role of status," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 208-230.
    2. Michael P. Donohoe & W. Robert Knechel, 2014. "Does Corporate Tax Aggressiveness Influence Audit Pricing?," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(1), pages 284-308, March.
    3. Ariel Markelevich & Rebecca L. Rosner, 2013. "Auditor Fees and Fraud Firms," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 1590-1625, December.
    4. Yongtae Kim & Haidan Li & Siqi Li, 2015. "CEO Equity Incentives and Audit Fees," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(2), pages 608-638, June.
    5. Chan, Lilian H. & Chen, Kevin C.W. & Chen, Tai-Yuan & Yu, Yangxin, 2012. "The effects of firm-initiated clawback provisions on earnings quality and auditor behavior," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 180-196.
    6. Joseph H. Zhang, 2018. "Accounting Comparability, Audit Effort, and Audit Outcomes," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(1), pages 245-276, March.
    7. DeFond, Mark L. & Lennox, Clive S., 2011. "The effect of SOX on small auditor exits and audit quality," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 21-40, June.
    8. 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.
    9. Ghosh, Aloke(Al) & Tang, Charles Y., 2015. "Assessing financial reporting quality of family firms: The auditors׳ perspective," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 95-116.
    10. Francis, Jennifer & LaFond, Ryan & Olsson, Per & Schipper, Katherine, 2005. "The market pricing of accruals quality," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 295-327, June.
    11. Rajib Doogar & Stephen P. Rowe & Padmakumar Sivadasan, 2015. "Asleep at the Wheel (Again)? Bank Audits During the Lead†Up to the Financial Crisis," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(1), pages 358-391, March.
    12. Chu, Ling & Simunic, Dan A. & Ye, Minlei & Zhang, Ping, 2018. "Transaction costs and competition among audit firms in local markets," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 129-147.
    13. Timothy B. Bell & Monika Causholli & W. Robert Knechel, 2015. "Audit Firm Tenure, Non‐Audit Services, and Internal Assessments of Audit Quality," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 461-509, June.
    14. Zmijewski, Me, 1984. "Methodological Issues Related To The Estimation Of Financial Distress Prediction Models," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22, pages 59-82.
    15. Ettredge, M & Greenberg, R, 1990. "Determinants Of Fee Cutting On Initial Audit Engagements," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 198-210.
    16. Bradley P. Lawson & Dechun Wang, 2016. "The Earnings Quality Information Content of Dividend Policies and Audit Pricing," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(4), pages 1685-1719, December.
    17. Kothari, S.P. & Leone, Andrew J. & Wasley, Charles E., 2005. "Performance matched discretionary accrual measures," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 163-197, February.
    18. Numan, Wieteke & Willekens, Marleen, 2012. "An empirical test of spatial competition in the audit market," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 450-465.
    19. Brad Badertscher & Bjorn Jorgensen & Sharon Katz & William Kinney, 2014. "Public Equity and Audit Pricing in the United States," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 303-339, May.
    20. Mark T. Bradshaw & Scott A. Richardson & Richard G. Sloan, 2001. "Do Analysts and Auditors Use Information in Accruals?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 45-74, June.
    21. Gul, Ferdinand A. & Fung, Simon Yu Kit & Jaggi, Bikki, 2009. "Earnings quality: Some evidence on the role of auditor tenure and auditors' industry expertise," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 265-287, June.
    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. Kang, Jung Koo & Lennox, Clive & Pandey, Vivek, 2022. "Client concerns about information spillovers from sharing audit partners," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1).
    2. Hallman, Nicholas J. & Kartapanis, Antonis & Schmidt, Jaime J., 2022. "How do auditors respond to competition? Evidence from the bidding process," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2).
    3. Yang, Seunghee & Lee, Woo-Jong & Lim, Youngdeok & Yi, Cheong H., 2021. "Audit firm operating leverage and pricing strategy: Evidence from lowballing in audit industry," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2).
    4. Dang, Man & Puwanenthiren, Premkanth & Truong, Cameron & Henry, Darren & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2022. "Audit quality and seasoned equity offerings methods," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    5. Hu, Juncheng & Li, Xiaorong & Wan, Zhong, 2023. "Corporate corruption and future audit fees: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3).
    6. Xue, Bai & O'Sullivan, Noel, 2023. "The determinants of audit fees in the alternative investment market (Aim) in the UK: Evidence on the impact of risk, corporate governance and auditor size," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    7. Huh, Bong Gu & Lee, Sunhwa & Kim, Wonsin, 2021. "The impact of the input level of information system audit on the audit quality: Korean evidence," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    8. Chen Chen & Ting‐Chiao Huang & Mukesh Garg & Mehdi Khedmati, 2021. "Governments as customers: Exploring the effects of government customers on supplier firms’ information quality," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(9-10), pages 1630-1667, October.

    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. DeFond, Mark & Zhang, Jieying, 2014. "A review of archival auditing research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 275-326.
    2. Yang, Seunghee & Lee, Woo-Jong & Lim, Youngdeok & Yi, Cheong H., 2021. "Audit firm operating leverage and pricing strategy: Evidence from lowballing in audit industry," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2).
    3. Fung, Simon Yu Kit & Raman, K.K. & Zhu, Xindong (Kevin), 2017. "Does the PCAOB international inspection program improve audit quality for non-US-listed foreign clients?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 15-36.
    4. Kitto, Andrew R., 2024. "The effects of non-Big 4 mergers on audit efficiency and audit market competition☆," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1).
    5. Meiying Hua & Pervaiz Alam, 2021. "Audit Quality and Environment, Social, and Governance Risks," International Journal of Business Research and Management (IJBRM), Computer Science Journals (CSC Journals), vol. 12(2), pages 50-75, April.
    6. Chantziaras, Antonios & Dedoulis, Emmanouil & Leventis, Stergios, 2020. "The impact of labor unionization on monitoring costs," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 288-307.
    7. Ho, Nam, 2023. "Local competition and auditors' provision of non-audit services," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    8. Gu, Junjian, 2021. "FDI characteristics, industry homogeneity, and audit fees in Japanese multinationals," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    9. Jeffrey L. Callen & Xiaohua Fang, 2020. "Local Gambling Norms and Audit Pricing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 151-173, June.
    10. Maria Tsipouridou & Charalambos Spathis, 2014. "Audit opinion and earnings management: Evidence from Greece," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(1), pages 38-54, March.
    11. Simon Fung & Viet Tuan Pham & K. K. Raman, 2022. "Client corruption culture and audit quality: the conditioning effect of the competitive position of the incumbent auditor," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 1133-1171, October.
    12. Xinming Liu & Gerald J. Lobo & Hung‐Chao Yu, 2021. "Is Audit Committee Equity Compensation Related to Audit Fees?," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(1), pages 740-769, March.
    13. Sarowar Hossain & Jenny Jing Wang, 2023. "Abnormal audit fees and audit quality: Australian evidence," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 48(3), pages 596-624, August.
    14. Stephen V. Brown & W. Robert Knechel, 2016. "Auditor–Client Compatibility and Audit Firm Selection," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(3), pages 725-775, June.
    15. Keval Amin & John Daniel Eshleman & Peng Guo, 2021. "Investor Sentiment, Misstatements, and Auditor Behavior," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(1), pages 483-517, March.
    16. Badertscher, Brad A. & Kim, Jaewoo & Kinney, William R. & Owens, Edward, 2023. "Assurance level choice, CPA fees, and financial reporting benefits: Inferences from U.S. private firms," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(2).
    17. Elizabeth Gutierrez & Miguel Minutti-Meza & Kay W. Tatum & Maria Vulcheva, 2018. "Consequences of adopting an expanded auditor’s report in the United Kingdom," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 1543-1587, December.
    18. Garcia-Blandon, Josep & Argiles-Bosch, Josep Maria & Castillo-Merino, David & Martinez-Blasco, Monica, 2017. "An Assessment of the Provisions of Regulation (EU) No 537/2014 on Non-audit Services and Audit Firm Tenure: Evidence from Spain," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 251-261.
    19. Samuel Jebaraj Benjamin, 2019. "The Effect of Financial Constraints on Audit Fees," Capital Markets Review, Malaysian Finance Association, vol. 27(2), pages 59-87.
    20. Alzoubi, Ebraheem Saleem Salem, 2018. "Audit quality, debt financing, and earnings management: Evidence from Jordan," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 69-84.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • M40 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - General
    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ehl:lserod:102683. 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: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    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.