The Accounting Review Vol. 64 No. 3 1989
The Relation of Audit Contract Type to Audit Fees and Hours
Abstract
[Audit contract type-fixed fee or cost-reimbursement-may affect audit fees and audit hours because of differences in both risk-sharing and incentives for efficiencies between the two types of contracts. It was hypothesized that under fixed fee contracting (1) audit fees would be higher or unaffected, and (2) audit hours would be lower. Instead, results indicate fixed fee contracts are associated with significantly lower audit fees and audit hours are not affected by contract type. The study also found that type of auditor (Big Eight or non-Big Eight), company ownership (public or closely-held), and time frame of audit performance (auditors' busy or non-busy season) was not related to contract choice. Finally, fixed fee contracting tended to be used more in early years of auditor/client relations. However, any pricing unique to initial engagements (e.g., price cutting behavior) did not explain significantly lower audit fees with fixed fee contracting.]
- Volume
- 64
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 488-499
- Sources
- bibtex:phds-export.bib