0000000001318571
AUTHOR
Cristina De Fuentes
Industry specialization and audit fees: a meta-analytic approach
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the literature that links auditor’s industry specialization (AIS) and audit fees (AFs) in order to clarify the puzzle of published results and provide overall conclusions that would help in future research. Design/methodology/approach To achieve this goal, the authors applied meta-analysis techniques in order to summarize, quantify and evaluate the published data related to the association between AIS and AF. Findings The meta-results are more robust when the proxy for AIS is the audit firm’s market share above 20 percent or the audit firm is jointly the national and city leader. For US-based studies, results are hom…
External investigations and disciplinary sanctions against auditors: the impact on audit quality
In this paper, we provide empirical evidence for the impact of disciplinary sanctions imposed on Spanish auditing firms and their engagement partners. The disciplinary sanctions resulted from external investigations, which revealed misapplications of auditing standards. In particular, we evaluate (a) the efficacy of the external supervisory board in identifying low-quality auditors and (b) the effectiveness of the disciplinary system in improving the quality of subsequent statutory audits performed by the sanctioned auditors. We employ two earnings management indicators as proxies for audit quality: loss avoidance through extraordinary items and abnormal accruals. And we compare these measu…
Corporate social responsibility and managerial compensation: further evidence from spanish listed companies
Ongoing regulatory efforts aim to link managerial compensation with a firm’s performance. However, little is known about whether and how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) goals are considered in the design of the managerial compensation scheme. This paper addresses this research question by analyzing a sample of Spanish listed firms for the period spanning 2013–2018. The outcomes of the regressions suggest that there is a positive relationship between CSR and the managerial compensation, but this relationship is significant only with lower levels of CSR. The study also reveals that CSR is positively associated with the proportion of equity-based compensation and, therefore, negatively a…
Differences and similaritites between corporate governance principles in Islamic banks and Conventional banks
Abstract The purpose of this paper is to present the some differences and similarities between corporate governance principles in Islamic banks and conventional banks by paradigmatic diversification. Since Corporate governance in Islamic banks is a social phenomenon in Islamic societies, the paper uses social theory paradigms (functionalist, interpretive, radical humanist and radical structuralist) to compare between corporate governance in Islamic banks and conventional banks. This paper demonstrates that mainstream corporate corporate governance theories are not a law of nature but a social construct.
The Impact of Audit Committee Characteristics on the Enhancement of the Quality of Financial Reporting: an empirical study in the Spanish context
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between the likelihood that a company will receive a qualified audit report (as a measure of the quality of financial information) and the existence and characteristics of the audit committee (AC). For listed companies that voluntarily created an AC in the period following the publication in 1998 of the Spanish Code of Corporate Governance, known as the Olivencia Code, we find that ACs size, the percentage of independent members in ACs, company size, losses reported in either or both of the previous two years, receiving the same qualified audit opinion as in the previous year and ownership concentration affect the likelihood of receiv…
El éxito de los procesos de fusión en el mercado de auditoría: el caso de PriceWaterhouseCoopers
Este trabajo ofrece evidencia sobre el resultado de la fusión de Price Waterhouse y Coopers & Lybrand respecto a 2 de los objetivos que pretendían alcanzarse con la operación empresarial, como son el crecimiento de la nueva compa˜nía en términos de cifra de negocios y el aumento de la cuota de mercado. El estudio, aplicando metodología utilizada en trabajos anteriores, comprende el periodo 1997-2003, incluyendo 5 a˜nos posteriores a la fusión, que se llevó a cabo en 1998. Los resultados revelan que PriceWaterhouse y Coopers & Lybrand hubiesen alcanzado una cuota de mercado y una facturación inferior a la de sus competidores más directos en caso de no haberse fusionado, aunque las diferencia…
The economic impact of audit failures
This paper examines the economic consequences associated with an audit failure in the field of statutory auditing services, by analyzing changes in the audit firm’s market share around the time of the investigation process undertaken by the Spanish Public Oversight Board. We explore the variations in audit market share by applying the difference in differences method to a treatment group of 70 sanctioned audit firms and a matched control group of 70 non-sanctioned audit firms. The period of analysis covers the years from 1999 to 2015. Our results show that the sanctioned audit firms suffered a significant decrease in their relative number of clients. Moreover, this measure of market share d…
Análise de divulgação de risco no Relatório Anual de Governança corporativa utilizando fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis
ABSTRACT This paper explores the necessary and sufficient conditions of good Corporate Governance practices for high risk disclosure by firms in their Corporate Governance Annual Report. Additionally, we explore whether those recipes have changed during the financial crisis. With a sample of 271 Spanish listed companies, we applied fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to a database of financial and non-financial data. We report that Board of Directors independence, size, level of activity and gender diversity, CEO duality, Audit Committee independence, being audited by the Big Four auditing firms and the presence of institutional investors are associated with high risk disclosure. The…
Effects of co-administration of amitriptyline and fluoxetine on inhibitory avoidance in mice
We have previously observed that, while the impairing effects of amitriptyline on inhibitory avoidance in mice are consistently observed, those of acute fluoxetine are negligible. Two experiments were designed to investigate whether a regular dose of fluoxetine potentiates the effect of a low dose of amitriptyline that is ineffective when administered alone. Male and female CD1 mice were administered i.p. 30 min before training, as follows. In the first experiment, they were injected with saline, one of three doses of amitriptyline (2.5, 5, 10 mg/kg), one dose of fluoxetine (15 mg/kg), or a combination of amitriptyline (2.5 mg/kg) and fluoxetine (15 mg/kg). In the second experiment, the mic…
Executive remuneration determinants: New evidence from meta-analysis
This meta-analysis takes stock of 121 C.E.O. pay studies published between 1998 and 2018 with the objective of identifying the main drivers of C.E.O. pay from a global perspective and contributing to the agency vs managerial debate on this ground. The meta-results disclose a positive C.E.O. pay–performance correlation (the highest correlation coefficient corresponds to Earnings per share with a 34%) as the agency theory prescribes and the governance policies promote. However, firm size still predominates as the main driver of C.E.O. pay (correlation coefficient is around 44%) according to managerial premises. Moreover, our results reconcile both approaches because results of the meta-regres…
Main drivers of consultancy services: A meta-analytic approach
Abstract This meta-analysis incorporates the results from 34 separate studies examining fee models for consultancy services whereby the consulting firm provides both audit and advisory services to its customers. The findings indicate a number of key determinants of consultancy bills: client size, audit fees, auditors being from a “Big Audit Firm,” client's financial difficulties, and prior experience with the legal auditors. Conversely, the meta-results fail to correlate the variable of interest with several constructs commonly used in consultancy models such as the auditee's inherent risk, the client's financial debt, or the audit opinion. The study also explores the influence of three mod…
IFRS adoption and audit and non-audit fees: empirical evidence from Spanish listed companies
We analyse trends in inflation-adjusted audit and non-audit fees from 2003 to 2009 with the aim of identifying the impact of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in Spain, where (a) the shift from national to international accounting standards represented major changes and (b) the implementation process was conducted in 2005 for group accounts of listed companies and 2008 for the individual accounts. To that end, we build a well-tested audit and non-audit fee model based on 2003 and compare the actual with the predicted values had the accounting reforms not taken place. We report unexpected higher audit fees for the group accounts model in the years 2004, 2005 and 2006. A plau…
Predicting audit failure: evidence from auditing enforcement releases
This study aims to identify the main determinants of audit failure and contribute to the current debate raised by recent European Union regulation on auditor’s tenure and economic policies to preve...
RISK DISCLOSURE ANALYSIS IN THE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE ANNUAL REPORT USING FUZZY-SET QUALITATIVE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
ABSTRACT This paper explores the necessary and sufficient conditions of good Corporate Governance practices for high risk disclosure by firms in their Corporate Governance Annual Report. Additionally, we explore whether those recipes have changed during the financial crisis. With a sample of 271 Spanish listed companies, we applied fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to a database of financial and non-financial data. We report that Board of Directors independence, size, level of activity and gender diversity, CEO duality, Audit Committee independence, being audited by the Big Four auditing firms and the presence of institutional investors are associated with high risk disclosure. The…