Much of the extant audit research focuses on the impact of excess audit fees paid to the auditors on earnings management. However, there is limited empirical evidence on whether auditors tolerate earnings management when audit fees are low, i.e., below the level of normal fees. Using a large...

This study investigates whether the auditors incorporate the implications of potential litigation risks arising from their client firms' earnings management through real activities manipulations (REM). Using a large sample of US firms, I find that REM is significantly positively related to audit...

In this study, we examine the impact of conditional conservatism on audit fees and, more importantly, the influence of corporate governance on this relationship. Prior literature presents evidence regarding explanations for the existence and pervasiveness of accounting conservatism such as...

This study investigates the economic auditor-client dependency issue by examining the association between abnormal audit fee pricing and audit quality. Our study is the first to analyze this phenomenon empirically for the institutional setting of German IFRS firms by using a sample of 2,334...

This paper examines whether book-tax differences help explain audit fees. By attesting to the fair representation of financial information, auditors are an important intermediary in financial statement users' trust and understanding of financial information. Our evidence that large book-tax...

Auditing as a corporate governance mechanism has attracted considerable research attention. Audit quality has come under increased scrutiny because of joint provision of audit and non-audit services (NAS). There are two competing hypothesis regarding the impact of NAS on financial reporting...

This paper examines the relation between audit fees and accruals from a balance sheet auditing perspective. We argue that the underlying economic characteristics of various transactions, as reflected in the articulation-based accruals in Casey et al. (2017), are predictably associated with audit...

We examine the costs and benefits of proactive financial reporting enforcement by the UK Financial Reporting Review Panel. Enforcement scrutiny is selective and varies by sector and over time, yet can be anticipated by auditors and companies. We find evidence that increased enforcement intensity...

Are high audit fees a signal that the auditor exerted more effort or a signal that the auditor may be losing her independence? Prior literature offers conflicting evidence. In this paper, we re-examine the issue on a sample of clients who have both the incentive and the ability to use...