The Impact of Corporate Governance Structure On Audit Fees in the UK Companies

Wang, Yanyan (2008) The Impact of Corporate Governance Structure On Audit Fees in the UK Companies. [Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)] (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Abstract

This dissertation examines the impact of the corporate governance structure of firms on audit fees with empirical evidence provided after controlling for the traditional determinants which are associated with audit fees. The association is based on the theory that corporate governance structures could affect the auditors' amount of work, and then will have impact on the pricing of audit fees. Auditors are expected to assess higher levels of risk for the firms that, in turn, will result in higher audit effort and higher audit fees. With the empirical evidence of 100 UK companies, UK data regression analysis indicates that the corporate governance structures of the firms can significantly or insignificantly and positively or negatively affect audit fees. Governance structures of the firms are further considered in order to examine the relationship. Corporate governance includes the presence of audit committees, proportion of non-executive directors on the audit committees, CEO duality and director share ownership which will be tested in the model. The results of my analysis show the support of hypothesis 1, 3, 4 and against hypothesis 2. These corresponding results provide evidence of a significant impact of corporate governance structure on audit fees to an extent. In addition, an additional test to evaluate the role of director share ownership shows that the impact of corporate governance on audit fees is more positive and significant for firms with low director share ownership (<5%) than for firms with high director ownership (>5%).

Item Type: Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)
Depositing User: EP, Services
Date Deposited: 02 Feb 2009
Last Modified: 16 Feb 2018 21:37
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/21804

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