The impact of audit committee effectiveness on audit fees and non-audit service fees: Evidence from Australia
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of audit committee effectiveness on audit fees and non-audit service (NAS) fees in a less regulatory environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors construct a composite audit committee effectiveness measure incorporating audit committee independence, diligence, size, financial expertise and the chairperson’s accounting expertise.
Findings
The authors find that audit committee effectiveness has a positive significant impact on both audit fees and NAS fees. This suggests that effective audit committees can hold auditors accountable resulting in better audit quality and consequently higher audit fees.
Originality/value
The link between more effective audit committees with higher NAS purchases can be explained in light of the difference in regulatory requirements providing audit committees with decision rights on the use of NASs, therefore approving more NAS and increasing NASF. Additional tests and robustness analyses confirm the results.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors appreciate the helpful comments and suggestions received from participants of the GAOC Conference 2012, Kula Lumpur, Department of Accounting, La Trobe University seminar and the CPA Northern Suburbs Practising Accountants Discussion Group. Any remaining errors are the authors’.
Citation
Ali, M.J., Singh, R.K.S. and Al-Akra, M. (2018), "The impact of audit committee effectiveness on audit fees and non-audit service fees: Evidence from Australia", Accounting Research Journal, Vol. 31 No. 2, pp. 174-191. https://doi.org/10.1108/ARJ-11-2015-0144
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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