Impact of Audit Fees and Audit Firm’s Reputation on Audit Quality: Evidence from Listed Companies from Pakistan

Abstract

Audit quality is viewed as a basic element influencing the dependability of financial statements. The objective of this study is to investigate the impacts of audit firm characteristics, including audit firms’ reputation and audit fees on the quality of auditing. We utilized discretionary/irregular accruals serving as a proxy for income manipulation, and audit firms’ reputation (Big 4 auditors vs Non-Big 4 auditors), and audit fees are utilized to examine the quality of auditing. A sample comprised of 49 listed firms from the KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) is selected for the duration of 5 years. The data is evaluated through multiple regression and correlations. The outcomes suggested that audit Fee seems to have a significant and negative effect on the quality of auditing, Audit quality also seems to affect ROA negatively, whereas, audit fee affected ROA positively. Lastly, the Big 4 representation has a negative effect on cash flows, whereas audit quality seems to have an inverse effect. The outcomes indicate that non-Big 4 audit firms in Pakistan perform higher quality of auditing than Big 4 audit firms. In addition to that, the outcome discloses that in exchange of higher audit fees, auditors perform lower quality of audits. The basic job of audit quality has gathered remarkably academic consideration. Though, earlier researches have basically centered on organizations operating in developed nations. Very limited is investigated about the quality of auditing in developing economies, for example, Pakistan. This investigation would increase the predetermined number of researches conducted on the quality of auditing of listed firms in developing nations.

Keywords: Audit quality, Audit firms’ reputation, Audit fees, Proxies of audit quality, Pakistan