Cristina de Fuentes

Industry specialization and audit fees: a meta-analytic approach

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the literature that links auditor’s industry specialization (AIS) and audit fees (AFs) in order to clarify the puzzle of published results and provide overall conclusions that would help in future research. Design/methodology/approach To achieve this goal, the authors applied meta-analysis techniques in order to summarize, quantify and evaluate the published data related to the association between AIS and AF. Findings The meta-results are more robust when the proxy for AIS is the audit firm’s market share above 20 percent or the audit firm is jointly the national and city leader. For US-based studies, results are homogeneous in the post-SOX period. This is likely due to the higher demand for specialized auditors. The authors found positive and homogeneous results in the upper and lower market segment, which led to the conclusion that the bargaining power of the big auditees does not fully counteract the higher auditor specialization...

Effects of co-administration of amitriptyline and fluoxetine on inhibitory avoidance in mice

We have previously observed that, while the impairing effects of amitriptyline on inhibitory avoidance in mice are consistently observed, those of acute fluoxetine are negligible. Two experiments were designed to investigate whether a regular dose of fluoxetine potentiates the effect of a low dose of amitriptyline that is ineffective when administered alone. Male and female CD1 mice were administered i.p. 30 min before training, as follows. In the first experiment, they were injected with saline, one of three doses of amitriptyline (2.5, 5, 10mg/kg), one dose of fluoxetine (15 mg/kg), or a combination of amitriptyline (2.5mg/kg) and fluoxetine (15 mg/kg). In the second experiment, the mice were injected with saline, amitriptyline (2.5mg/kg), one of three doses of fluoxetine (10, 15, 20mg/kg), or a combination of 2.5mg/kg of amitriptyline and one of the three mentioned doses of fluoxetine. Drug doses were selected based on previous experiments in our laboratory reported in other publications. The behavioural procedure used to test the effects of these treatments was step-through inhibitory avoidance. The joint administration of amitriptyline 2.5mg/kg and fluoxetine 15 mg/kg had a clear impairing effect on inhibitory avoidance as observed in the two experiments. The dose of 2.5mg/kg of amitriptyline, given alone, was ineffective. Doses of 5mg/kg, or higher, of amitriptyline impaired inhibitory avoidance. The only effect detected when fluoxetine was administered separately was in the males of the experiment 1, which exhibited less avoidance than controls. Our preclinical research throws light on the benefits of the combined administration of antidepressants.

RISK DISCLOSURE ANALYSIS IN THE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE ANNUAL REPORT USING FUZZY-SET QUALITATIVE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

This paper explores the necessary and sufficient conditions of good Corporate Governance practices for high risk disclosure by firms in their Corporate Governance Annual Report. Additionally, we explore whether those recipes have changed during the financial crisis. With a sample of 271 Spanish listed companies, we applied fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to a database of financial and non-financial data. We report that Board of Directors independence, size, level of activity and gender diversity, CEO duality, Audit Committee independence, being audited by the Big Four auditing firms and the presence of institutional investors are associated with high risk disclosure. The conditions included in almost every combination are the presence of institutional investors and being audited by the Big Four. We found similar combinations for 2006 and 2012, while the analysis for 2009 showed the lowest number of causal configurations.O presente artigo investiga as condicoes necessarias e suficientes das boas praticas de Governanca Corporativa para a divulgacao de alto risco, pelas empresas, no Relatorio Anual de Governanca Corporativa. Alem disso, investigamos se tais formulas se alteraram durante a crise financeira. A partir de uma amostra de 271 empresas espanholas cotadas em bolsa, aplicamos uma analise comparativa qualitativa usando conjuntos Fuzzy a um banco de dados financeiros e nao financeiros. Relatamos que a independencia, tamanho, nivel de atividade e diversidade de genero do Conselho de Administracao, a dualidade do Diretor Executivo, a independencia do Comite de Auditoria, o fato de estar sendo auditado pelas Big Four empresas de auditoria e a presenca de investidores institucionais estao associados a divulgacao de alto risco. As condicoes incluidas em quase todas as combinacoes sao a presenca de investidores institucionais e o fato de estar sendo auditado pelas Big Four. Encontramos combinacoes semelhantes para os anos de 2006 e 2012, enquanto a analise de 2009 apresentou o menor numero de configuracoes causais.

IFRS adoption and audit and non-audit fees: empirical evidence from Spanish listed companies

We analyse trends in inflation-adjusted audit and non-audit fees from 2003 to 2009 with the aim of identifying the impact of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in Spain, where (a) the shift from national to international accounting standards represented major changes and (b) the implementation process was conducted in 2005 for group accounts of listed companies and 2008 for the individual accounts. To that end, we build a well-tested audit and non-audit fee model based on 2003 and compare the actual with the predicted values had the accounting reforms not taken place. We report unexpected higher audit fees for the group accounts model in the years 2004, 2005 and 2006. A plausible explanation for these results is the incremental audit costs associated with the mandatory IFRS adoption. Similarly, the unexpected increment in 2008 for parent company audit fees is feasibly associated with the new domestic accounting rules. The behaviour of non-audit fees is more erratic and likely influenced by the auditors’ independence regulation enacted in 2002. We only identify significant prediction errors in 2008 for group accounts. Total fees exhibit significant increases in 2005 and 2008 for group accounts and 2008 for parent company accounts. Our results are robust to different additional tests.

Estudio de la divulgación de riesgos en el Informe Anual de Gobierno Corporativo mediante fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis

This paper explores the necessary and sufficient conditions of good Corporate Governance practices for high risk disclosure by firms in their Corporate Governance Annual Report. Additionally, we explore whether those recipes have changed during the financial crisis. With a sample of 271 Spanish listed companies, we applied fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to a database of financial and non-financial data. We report that Board of Directors independence, size, level of activity and gender diversity, CEO duality, Audit Committee independence, being audited by the Big Four auditing firms and the presence of institutional investors are associated with high risk disclosure. The conditions included in almost every combination are the presence of institutional investors and being audited by the Big Four. We found similar combinations for 2006 and 2012, while the analysis for 2009 showed the lowest number of causal configurations.O presente artigo investiga as condicoes necessarias e suficientes das boas praticas de Governanca Corporativa para a divulgacao de alto risco, pelas empresas, no Relatorio Anual de Governanca Corporativa. Alem disso, investigamos se tais formulas se alteraram durante a crise financeira. A partir de uma amostra de 271 empresas espanholas cotadas em bolsa, aplicamos uma analise comparativa qualitativa usando conjuntos Fuzzy a um banco de dados financeiros e nao financeiros. Relatamos que a independencia, tamanho, nivel de atividade e diversidade de genero do Conselho de Administracao, a dualidade do Diretor Executivo, a independencia do Comite de Auditoria, o fato de estar sendo auditado pelas Big Four empresas de auditoria e a presenca de investidores institucionais estao associados a divulgacao de alto risco. As condicoes incluidas em quase todas as combinacoes sao a presenca de investidores institucionais e o fato de estar sendo auditado pelas Big Four. Encontramos combinacoes semelhantes para os anos de 2006 e 2012, enquanto a analise de 2009 apresentou o menor numero de configuracoes causais.

Análise de divulgação de risco no Relatório Anual de Governança Corporativa utilizando fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis

This paper explores the necessary and sufficient conditions of good Corporate Governance practices for high risk disclosure by firms in their Corporate Governance Annual Report. Additionally, we explore whether those recipes have changed during the financial crisis. With a sample of 271 Spanish listed companies, we applied fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to a database of financial and non-financial data. We report that Board of Directors independence, size, level of activity and gender diversity, CEO duality, Audit Committee independence, being audited by the Big Four auditing firms and the presence of institutional investors are associated with high risk disclosure. The conditions included in almost every combination are the presence of institutional investors and being audited by the Big Four. We found similar combinations for 2006 and 2012, while the analysis for 2009 showed the lowest number of causal configurations.O presente artigo investiga as condicoes necessarias e suficientes das boas praticas de Governanca Corporativa para a divulgacao de alto risco, pelas empresas, no Relatorio Anual de Governanca Corporativa. Alem disso, investigamos se tais formulas se alteraram durante a crise financeira. A partir de uma amostra de 271 empresas espanholas cotadas em bolsa, aplicamos uma analise comparativa qualitativa usando conjuntos Fuzzy a um banco de dados financeiros e nao financeiros. Relatamos que a independencia, tamanho, nivel de atividade e diversidade de genero do Conselho de Administracao, a dualidade do Diretor Executivo, a independencia do Comite de Auditoria, o fato de estar sendo auditado pelas Big Four empresas de auditoria e a presenca de investidores institucionais estao associados a divulgacao de alto risco. As condicoes incluidas em quase todas as combinacoes sao a presenca de investidores institucionais e o fato de estar sendo auditado pelas Big Four. Encontramos combinacoes semelhantes para os anos de 2006 e 2012, enquanto a analise de 2009 apresentou o menor numero de configuracoes causais.