We investigate whether female lead auditors are associated with higher audit fees and audit quality. We expect female lead auditors to have a significant influence on these audit outcomes for two reasons. First, female auditors are more risk averse and less tolerant of opportunistic behaviours than their male counterparts. Second, lead auditors perform more numerous and varied tasks and spend more time on the audit of a given client than concurring auditors. Our results show that female lead auditors are associated with higher audit quality but not with higher audit fees. However, these results only hold for female lead auditors with low client-specific experience (i.e., in a riskier context). Finally, additional analyses suggest that female lead auditors and female concurring auditors have a different influence on audit fees and audit quality.

中文翻译：

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女性牵头审计师、审计费用和审计质量


我们调查了女性牵头审计师是否与较高的审计费用和审计质量有关。我们预计女性首席审计师将对这些审计结果产生重大影响，原因有二。首先，与男性审计师相比，女性审计师更厌恶风险，对机会主义行为的容忍度更低。其次，与赞同的审计师相比，主任审计师执行更多和不同的任务，并在对给定客户的审计上花费更多的时间。我们的结果表明，女性主任审计师与较高的审计质量相关，但与较高的审计费用无关。然而，这些结果仅适用于客户特定经验较少的女性牵头审计师（即在风险较高的环境中）。最后，其他分析表明，女性首席审计师和女性赞同审计师对审计费用和审计质量的影响不同。