Audit Partner Specialization and Audit Fees: Some Evidence from Sweden*
利用瑞典四大审计事务所合伙人的客户数据，研究发现审计合伙人在行业和大型上市公司方面的专长能带来更高审计费用，且这种专长与个人人力资本紧密相关。
Utilizing a dataset on the client portfolios of the Big 4 audit partners in Sweden, this study examines auditor specialization and pricing at the individual partner level. Consistent with the view that there are returns on investing in specialization, the analysis of audit fees indicates that both audit partner industry specialization, and specialization in large public companies, are recognized and valued by financial statement users and/or by corporate insiders, resulting in higher fees within these engagements. The highest fees are earned by engagement partners who are both industry and public firm specialists. Collectively, the findings of this study indicate that part of an auditor’s deep expertise is not transferable across audit partners within an audit firm but is instead inseparably tied to the individual audit partner’s private human capital.