Using a large sample of privately held Korean companies that are not required to obtain an external audit, this paper examines the value of voluntary external audits of financial statements with respect to the cost of debt. We find that private companies with an external audit pay a...

The extant auditing literature documents an inconsistent relationship between audit fees and market concentration. In this paper, we argue that the impact of market concentration on audit fees is auditor and auditee specific. Based on the fact that the audit services to an auditee are generally...

The market for audit services has been the subject of extensive academic research since the 1970’s. The prevailing view is that audit markets are characterized by tiers of suppliers (Big 4 vs. non-Big 4, and industry specialists vs. non-specialists) where the upper-tier suppliers produce and...

We study the effects of cross-listings on audit fees. We first develop a model in which legal environments play a crucial role in determining the auditor's legal liability. Our model and analysis predict that auditors charge higher fees for firms that are cross-listed in countries with stronger...