The High-Speed Railway Opening and Audit Fees: Evidence from China

Dongshan Ma, Shengqiang Zhang () and Jiayu Zhao ()
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Dongshan Ma: Business School, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110136, China
Shengqiang Zhang: Sun Wah International Business School, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110136, China
Jiayu Zhao: Sun Wah International Business School, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110136, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 20, 1-19

Abstract: By constructing a staggered difference-in-differences model, we examined the effect of the high-speed railway opening on audit fees and its mechanism. The high-speed railway opening significantly reduces audit fees, and the inhibitory effect is more pronounced in firms located in non-central cities and small- and medium-sized audit firms. Furthermore, the high-speed railway opening mainly affects the audit fees by intensifying the competition in the audit market, but information asymmetry has no significant impact, indicating that the high-speed railway opening mainly reduces the audit fees by reducing the audit costs. In addition, the high-speed railway opening can improve the audit quality, which further shows that the high-speed railway opening can promote reasonable competition in the audit market.

Keywords: high-speed railway; audit fees; information asymmetry; audit market competition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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