IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/acctfi/v62y2022i2p2339-2384.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Audit pricing and corporate whistleblower governance: evidence from Australian financial firms

Author

Listed:
  • Baban Eulaiwi
  • Ahmed Al‐Hadi
  • Lien Duong
  • Keira Clark
  • Grantley Taylor
  • Brian Perrin

Abstract

We investigate the relationship between firm whistleblower governance and audit pricing of Australian listed financial firms over the 2008–2018 period. Consistent with agency and organisational justice theoretical tenets, we find that firms that exhibit stronger whistleblower governance incur lower audit fees. We find that the negative association between strength in whistleblower governance and firms' audit fees is more pronounced for firms that are exposed to increased litigation risk, and for firms having an anti‐fraud policy. Our results are robust to endogeneity tests including difference‐in‐difference (DID), two‐stage least squares (2SLS) and propensity score matching (PSM) analyses.

Suggested Citation

  • Baban Eulaiwi & Ahmed Al‐Hadi & Lien Duong & Keira Clark & Grantley Taylor & Brian Perrin, 2022. "Audit pricing and corporate whistleblower governance: evidence from Australian financial firms," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(2), pages 2339-2384, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:62:y:2022:i:2:p:2339-2384
    DOI: 10.1111/acfi.12867
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/acfi.12867
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/acfi.12867?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert M. Bushman & Joseph D. Piotroski & Abbie J. Smith, 2004. "What Determines Corporate Transparency?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(2), pages 207-252, May.
    2. Lee, Gladys & Xiao, Xinning, 2018. "Whistleblowing on accounting-related misconduct: A synthesis of the literature," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 22-46.
    3. Eulaiwi, Baban & Al-Hadi, Ahmed & Taylor, Grantley & Dutta, Saurav & Duong, Lien & Richardson, Grant, 2021. "Tax haven Use, the pricing of audit and Non-audit Services, suspicious matters reporting obligations and whistle blower hotline Facilities: Evidence from Australian financial corporations," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2).
    4. Fama, Eugene F & Jensen, Michael C, 1983. "Separation of Ownership and Control," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(2), pages 301-325, June.
    5. Armstrong, Christopher S. & Blouin, Jennifer L. & Larcker, David F., 2012. "The incentives for tax planning," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 391-411.
    6. Dichev, Ilia D. & Tang, Vicki Wei, 2009. "Earnings volatility and earnings predictability," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1-2), pages 160-181, March.
    7. Reyes Calderón-Cuadrado & José Álvarez-Arce & Isabel Rodríguez-Tejedo & Stella Salvatierra, 2009. "“Ethics Hotlines” in Transnational Companies: A Comparative Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(1), pages 199-210, August.
    8. Timothy G. Conley & Christopher R. Taber, 2011. "Inference with "Difference in Differences" with a Small Number of Policy Changes," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(1), pages 113-125, February.
    9. Hainmueller, Jens, 2012. "Entropy Balancing for Causal Effects: A Multivariate Reweighting Method to Produce Balanced Samples in Observational Studies," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 25-46, January.
    10. Stephen Gray & John Nowland, 2017. "The diversity of expertise on corporate boards in Australia," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 57(2), pages 429-463, June.
    11. Griffin, Paul A. & Lont, David H. & Sun, Yuan, 2008. "Corporate Governance and Audit Fees: Evidence of Countervailing Relations," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 18-49.
    12. Qingbo Yuan & Yunyan Zhang, 2015. "Do Banks Price Litigation Risk in Debt Contracting? Evidence from Class Action Lawsuits," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(9-10), pages 1310-1340, November.
    13. Seifert, Deborah L. & Sweeney, John T. & Joireman, Jeff & Thornton, John M., 2010. "The influence of organizational justice on accountant whistleblowing," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 707-717, October.
    14. McTier, Brian C. & Wald, John K., 2011. "The causes and consequences of securities class action litigation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 649-665, June.
    15. Arena, Matteo & Julio, Brandon, 2015. "The Effects of Securities Class Action Litigation on Corporate Liquidity and Investment Policy," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 50(1-2), pages 251-275, April.
    16. Khan, Shahwali & Bradbury, Michael E., 2014. "Volatility and risk relevance of comprehensive income," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 76-85.
    17. Rong Yang & Yang Yu & Manlu Liu & Kean Wu, 2018. "Corporate Risk Disclosure and Audit Fee: A Text Mining Approach," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3), pages 583-594, May.
    18. Aharony, Joseph & Liu, Chelsea & Yawson, Alfred, 2015. "Corporate litigation and executive turnover," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 268-292.
    19. Eulaiwi, Baban & Al-Hadi, Ahmed & Taylor, Grantley & Al-Yahyaee, Khamis Hamed & Evans, John, 2016. "Multiple directorships, family ownership and the board nomination committee: International evidence from the GCC," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 61-88.
    20. Simunic, Da, 1984. "Auditing, Consulting, And Auditor Independence," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(2), pages 679-702.
    21. Ho, Daniel E. & Imai, Kosuke & King, Gary & Stuart, Elizabeth A., 2007. "Matching as Nonparametric Preprocessing for Reducing Model Dependence in Parametric Causal Inference," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(3), pages 199-236, July.
    22. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    23. Andrews,Donald W. K. & Stock,James H. (ed.), 2005. "Identification and Inference for Econometric Models," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521844413.
    24. Gao, Lei & Brink, Alisa G., 2017. "Whistleblowing studies in accounting research: A review of experimental studies on the determinants of whistleblowing," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 1-13.
    25. Santanu Mitra & Bikki Jaggi & Talal Al-Hayale, 2019. "Managerial overconfidence, ability, firm-governance and audit fees," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 841-870, April.
    26. Ettredge, Michael & Fuerherm, Elizabeth Emeigh & Li, Chan, 2014. "Fee pressure and audit quality," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 247-263.
    27. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    28. Xin Qu & Daifei Yao & Majella Percy, 2020. "How the Design of CEO Equity-Based Compensation can Lead to Lower Audit Fees: Evidence from Australia," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 163(2), pages 281-308, May.
    29. Paul A. Griffin & David H. Lont & Yuan Sun, 2010. "Agency problems and audit fees: further tests of the free cash flow hypothesis," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 50(2), pages 321-350, June.
    30. Kathleen A. Bentley & Thomas C. Omer & Nathan Y. Sharp, 2013. "Business Strategy, Financial Reporting Irregularities, and Audit Effort," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 780-817, June.
    31. El’fred Boo & Divesh Sharma, 2008. "Effect of regulatory oversight on the association between internal governance characteristics and audit fees," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 48(1), pages 51-71, March.
    32. Kim Ittonen & Emma-Riikka Myllymäki & Per Christen Tronnes, 2019. "Banks’ audit committees, audit firm alumni and fees paid to audit firm," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 34(7), pages 783-807, June.
    33. Yu Flora Kuang & Gladys Lee & Bo Qin, 2021. "Whistleblowing Allegations, Audit Fees, and Internal Control Deficiencies," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(1), pages 32-62, March.
    34. Arena, Matteo P., 2018. "Corporate litigation and debt," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 202-215.
    35. Xing Li & Xia Chen & Baolei Qi & Gaoliang Tian, 2020. "Employee quality and audit fee: evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(5), pages 4533-4566, December.
    36. Clive Lennox & Petro Lisowsky & Jeffrey Pittman, 2013. "Tax Aggressiveness and Accounting Fraud," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(4), pages 739-778, September.
    37. Deng, Saiying & Willis, Richard H. & Xu, Li, 2014. "Shareholder Litigation, Reputational Loss, and Bank Loan Contracting," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(4), pages 1101-1132, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Abdullah Almutairi & Baban Eulaiwi & Robert Evans & Grantley Taylor, 2023. "Tax Haven Use and Related‐Party Transactions: Evidence from Australia," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 33(4), pages 352-374, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xiaomeng Chen & Meiting Lu & Yaowen Shan & Yizhou Zhang, 2023. "Securities class actions and conditional conservatism: Evidence from two legal events," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(2), pages 2441-2471, June.
    2. Kovermann, Jost & Velte, Patrick, 2019. "The impact of corporate governance on corporate tax avoidance—A literature review," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 1-1.
    3. Liu, Ruiming & Si, Haiping & Miao, Miao, 2022. "One false step can make a great difference: Does corporate litigation cause the exit of the controlling shareholder?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    4. Roman Lanis & Grant Richardson & Chelsea Liu & Ross McClure, 2019. "The Impact of Corporate Tax Avoidance on Board of Directors and CEO Reputation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 463-498, December.
    5. Unsal, Omer & Brodmann, Jennifer, 2020. "The impact of employee relations on the reputation of the board of directors and CEO," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 372-388.
    6. Hidaya Lawati & Khaled Hussainey & Roza Sagitova, 2021. "Disclosure quality vis-à-vis disclosure quantity: Does audit committee matter in Omani financial institutions?," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 557-594, August.
    7. Treepongkaruna, Sirimon & Kyaw, Khine & Jiraporn, Pornsit, 2022. "Shareholder litigation rights and ESG controversies: A quasi-natural experiment," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    8. Asiri, Mohammed & Al-Hadi, Ahmed & Taylor, Grantley & Duong, Lien, 2020. "Is corporate tax avoidance associated with investment efficiency?," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    9. Zuo, Junqing & Zhang, Wei & Hu, Mingya & Feng, Xu & Zou, Gaofeng, 2022. "Employee relations and stock price crash risk: Evidence from employee lawsuits," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    10. Christofer Adrian & Sue Wright, 2020. "Perceptions of shareholders and directors on corporate governance: what we learn about director primacy," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(S1), pages 1209-1236, April.
    11. Eulaiwi, Baban & Al-Hadi, Ahmed & Taylor, Grantley & Dutta, Saurav & Duong, Lien & Richardson, Grant, 2021. "Tax haven Use, the pricing of audit and Non-audit Services, suspicious matters reporting obligations and whistle blower hotline Facilities: Evidence from Australian financial corporations," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2).
    12. Lisa Frey, 2018. "Tax certified individual auditors and effective tax rates," Business Research, Springer;German Academic Association for Business Research, vol. 11(1), pages 77-114, February.
    13. Do, Trung K., 2021. "Shareholder litigation rights and corporate payout policy: Evidence from universal demand laws," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    14. Hongmin Jin & Lu Wang & Zuoping Xiao & Hung‐Gay Fung, 2023. "What firm risk factors drive bank loan pricing and other terms? Evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(3), pages 2985-3010, September.
    15. Nguyen, Nam H. & Phan, Hieu V. & Lee, Eunju, 2020. "Shareholder litigation rights and capital structure decisions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    16. Krishnan, Gopal V. & Singer, Zvi & Zhang, Jing, 2023. "Audit partner ethnicity and salient audit phenomena," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    17. Safiullah, Md & Shamsuddin, Abul, 2018. "Risk in Islamic banking and corporate governance," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 129-149.
    18. Roman Lanis & Grant Richardson & Grantley Taylor, 2017. "Board of Director Gender and Corporate Tax Aggressiveness: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 144(3), pages 577-596, September.
    19. Kovermann, Jost & Wendt, Martin, 2019. "Tax avoidance in family firms: Evidence from large private firms," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 145-157.
    20. Anutchanat Jaroenjitrkam & Sirimon Treepongkaruna & Pornsit Jiraporn, 2022. "Does shareholder litigation risk promote or hinder corporate social responsibility? A quasi‐natural experiment," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(3), pages 657-674, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:62:y:2022:i:2:p:2339-2384. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaanzea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.