The Effect of Auditor Industry Specialization on Audit Pricing in Belgium

W. Dutillieux and M. Willekens

Review of Business and Economic Literature, 2009, vol. 54, issue 2, 129-147

Abstract: Recent studies have documented that auditor industry specialization is associated with higher audit fees for public firms in Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. This paper uses a unique dataset that consists of all audit engagements for the year 2004 to examine this issue in Belgium. We document that in addition to a general Big 4 brand name premium there is a premium for industry specialization. Above that, specialization leads to higher audit fees for both Big 4 specialists and non-Big 4 specialists. We contribute to the literature by documenting the existence of audit fee premiums for industry specialization in the nonlisted client segment of the audit market, while previous research focused on the listed client segment. In additional analyses we show that the largest audit clients do not pay fee premiums for specialization, which could be an indication of their greater bargaining power.

Date: 2009
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sen:rebelj:v:54:i:2:y:2009:p:129-147

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