Do Non–Audit Service Fees Impair Auditor Independence? Evidence from Going Concern Audit Opinions
研究发现非审计服务费用与审计师独立性受损之间没有显著关联，独立性由审计师出具持续经营审计意见的倾向来衡量，结果支持市场激励（如声誉损失和诉讼成本）主导了损害独立性的预期收益。
We find no significant association between non–audit service fees and impaired auditor independence, where auditor independence is surrogated by auditors’ propensity to issue going concern audit opinions. We also find no association between going concern opinions and either total fees or audit fees. In addition, our findings are robust to controlling for unexpected fees, to controlling for endogeneity among our variables, and to several alternative research design specifications. Our results are consistent with market–based incentives, such as loss of reputation and litigation costs, dominating the expected benefits from compromising auditor independence.