The Female Audit Fee Premium

40 Pages Posted: 3 Jun 2010 Last revised: 17 Jan 2018

See all articles by Kris Hardies

Kris Hardies

University of Antwerp

Diane Breesch

Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Joël Branson

Vrije Universiteit Brussel VUB

Date Written: February 27, 2015

Abstract

This study investigates the existence of a female audit fee premium audit fees for female audit engagement partners from Belgian firms that were audited by 93 female and 599 male audit partners during the period 2008–2011. The results suggest that client firms pay higher audit fees female auditors. The findings are confirmed by an array of robustness checks, including a propensity score matched sample, a Heckman two-stage procedure, an examination of a sample of clients that switched audit partners, and fixed-effects models. The combined evidence in this study suggests the existence of a female audit fee premium. This fee premium may exist because of gender differences in knowledge, skills, abilities, preferences, and behavior or due to supply side factors satisfaction.

Keywords: audit quality, audit fees, audit engagement partner, sex, gender

JEL Classification: M42, J16

Suggested Citation

Hardies, Kris and Breesch, Diane and Branson, Joël, The Female Audit Fee Premium (February 27, 2015). Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, Vol. 34, No. 4, 2015, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1619911 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1619911

Kris Hardies (Contact Author)

University of Antwerp ( email )

Department of Accounting and Finance
Pleinlaan 13
Antwerp, 2000
Belgium

Diane Breesch

Vrije Universiteit Brussel ( email )

Pleinlaan 2
Brussels, Brussels 1050
Belgium

Joël Branson

Vrije Universiteit Brussel VUB ( email )

Pleinlaan 2
Brussels, 1050
Belgium

HOME PAGE: http://www.vub.ac.be/es