Earning Autocorrelation, earning Volatility, and Audit Fees

Audit fee is sensitive to the condition that increase audit risk. Earnings autocorrelation and earnings volatility are the important earnings characteristics that affect audit risk. These characteristics may constitute important elements of inherent risk for the auditor, but the associations and directions are ambiguous. In response to greater inherent risk, auditors should conduct more extensive substantive testing to reduce the overall risk associated with the audit. The current study investigate the effect of these earnings characteristics on audit fee from the lenses of different theories. For this purpose, the data of 93 publicly-held companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange, during the time interval of 1388-1394 are examined. The results of hypothesis indicate that there is a negative (positive) and significant relationship between Earnings autocorrelation (volatility) and audit fees. In other words, for higher earnings volatility,audit firms charge more audit fees to its client. And against what was expected, auditor industry specialization has no significant moderating effect on these relations.