Abstract (EN)

We examine a sample of 300 publicly listed companies in three European countries (France, Germany and the UK) during the period 2003-2008 to investigate the relations between audit fees and several auditor and company attributes. These include quantitative and qualitative variables. The presence of Big Four and non Big Four firms in charge of the audit of a company’s financial statements is also considered. The overall evidence indicates that the presence of the Big Four, clients’ specific characteristics in terms of industry, size and complexity of operations have inevitably a significant impact on audit fees. However, the contrasting results we observe in our cross-country analysis lead to the conclusion that the environmental factors specific to each country, such as the size of professional accounting body and audit market as well as the regulations in place in the area of auditing, may play an important role in this type of research.