Audit market concentration, legal regime, and audit fees: An international investigation

Abstract

Despite regulators' on-going concerns on the high concentration of the current audit market, the effects of concentration on auditors' behavior is still debated. We provide an answer to this unresolved issue by considering the role of legal regime in shaping auditors' pricing strategy in a concentrated market. Using data from 33 countries, we find no significant association between audit market concentration and audit fees in the pooled international sample. However, a country's legal regime changes this association dramatically: the association is significantly positive in countries with a weak legal regime but becomes weaker and eventually turns negative as countries' legal regime becomes stronger. Our study highlights the importance of country-level institutions in determining how market structure affects market participants' behavior.

Keywords: audit fees, audit market concentration, audit market structure, competition, international audit, legal regime

JEL Classification: K42; L11; M42