Non-Audit Service Fees and Audit Quality: The Impact of Auditor Specialization

Abstract:     
We posit that the effect of non-audit fees on audit quality is conditional on auditor industry specialization. Industry specialist auditors are more likely than non-specialists to be concerned about reputation losses and litigation exposure, and to benefit from knowledge spillovers from the provision of non-audit services. We find evidence that audit quality measured by increased propensity to issue going-concern opinion, increased propensity to miss analysts' forecasts, as well as higher earnings-response coefficients increases with the level of non-audit services acquired from industry specialist auditors compared to non-specialist auditors.

Keywords: non-audit fees, auditor specialization, audit quality

JEL Classification: M49, G29, L84

Accepted Paper Series