We examine the association between abnormal audit fees and audit quality using Australian data. We find that audit quality, measured by auditors’ propensity to issue going concern opinions for financially distressed companies, discretionary accruals, and clients’ propensity to meet or beat earnings benchmarks, declines as positive abnormal audit fees increase in magnitude. Our findings support an economic bonding argument that positive abnormal audit fees reflect the extent of economic bonding between the auditor and the client. We also find that negative abnormal audit fees are negatively associated with the absolute value of discretionary accruals. Our findings suggest that academic researchers, practitioners, regulators, and others interested in assessing the effect of auditor remuneration on auditor independence and audit quality should be concerned with audit fees that are above a normal level rather than audit fees that are below a normal level of audit fees.

JEL Classification: M42, M49

我们使用澳大利亚数据检查异常审计费用与审计质量之间的关联。我们发现，以审计师为陷入财务困境的公司发表持续经营意见的倾向、可自由支配的应计项目以及客户达到或超过盈利基准的倾向来衡量的审计质量随着正异常审计费用的增加而下降。我们的研究结果支持经济联结的论点，即正的异常审计费用反映了审计师和客户之间的经济联结程度。我们还发现，负异常审计费用与可支配应计项目的绝对值负相关。我们的研究结果表明，学术研究人员、从业人员、监管机构、

JEL分类： M42、M49