Essays on the impact of mandatory audit fee disclosure on the market for audit services

The focus of this study is to examine consequences of mandatory audit fee disclosure on the market for audit services. More specifically, this study investigates the following questions. First, does public disclosure of audit fees impact audit pricing and competition in the audit market? We aim to provide insights into the impact of mandatory audit fee disclosure on the relationships between clients and their auditor on the one hand, and between auditors and their competitors on the other hand. Second, does public disclosure of audit fees impact audit quality? We examine whether the audit fee disclosure regulation gives rise to an increase in audit quality in the post-disclosure period. In addition, we explore whether the impact of the disclosure regulation on audit quality differs between clients with and without non-audit fees and we assess the impact of audit fee adjustments following mandatory audit fee disclosure on audit quality. Third, do we observe psychological pricing in the market for audit services and does publicly available price information resulting from mandatory audit fee disclosure affect the presence or absence of this pricing strategy?