The capital market consequence of sustained abnormal Audit fees: Evidence from stock price crash risk

Prior studies provide mixed interpretations for the effect of abnormal audit fees on audit quality. One interpretation is that abnormal audit fees reflect economic bonding which decreases audit quality, while the other interpretation is that they are associated with unobserved audit efforts and audit risk. We argue that long-term abnormal audit fees clarify mixed evidence, as they reflect the gradual formation and development of both economic bonding and sustained auditor efforts over time. We examine the effect of long-term abnormal audit fees on audit quality by focusing on client's future stock price crash risk. Using 42,604 firm-year observations of U.S. firms, we find that sustained positive abnormal audit fees (consistently positive long-term abnormal audit fees) are negatively associated with future stock price crash risk, supporting the auditor effort argument and negating the economic bonding argument. We also find weak evidence that current-period abnormal audit fees are positively associated with future stock price crash risk, supporting the audit risk argument. Overall, our evidence shows that the magnitude and the pattern of long-term abnormal audit fees jointly affect audit quality in mitigating a client's bad news hoarding behavior.