Family control, audit committees and audit fees

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of family control on audit effort and audit risk as proxied by audit fees, the relation between the quality of the audit committee (AC) and audit fees, and how family control influences the association between AC quality and audit fees. Using a sample of Hong Kong companies from the 2005/06 fiscal year, we find that family-controlled firms have lower audit fees. The results also show a positive association between AC quality and audit fees in Hong Kong. Moreover, the association of higher AC quality with higher audit fees is stronger in family-controlled firms than in non-family-controlled firms. Collectively, our findings suggest that audit committees in family-controlled firms require a higher degree of external audit effort than do those in non-familycontrolled firms.