The Influence of Accounting Comparability on the Audit Fees

Based on the Simunic model and the surplusearnings regression model (De Franco et al.), we build a research model according to the relationships between variables of the audit input, risk premium and accounting comparability. The result shows that the accounting comparability has a huge effect on audit fees. Companies having a high level of accounting comparability collect low audit fees, vice versa. Further research shows that, the accounting comparability influences the audit fees through two ways. One is to improve the efficiency of obtaining external information and enhance the auditability on the financial statement, and then decrease the input on the audit by reducing the human capital investment. The other is to reduce the audit risk so as to decrease the risk premium required by accountant. The research also shows that the first influence way is more remarkable comparing to the second way.