Table 2.

Definition and measurement of the variables

Dependent variables:DescriptionExpected signReference
Audit feeLog of audit fees paid by the company to the audit firm in BDT Pinto and Morais (2019); Rahaman et al. (2023) 
ARLAudit report lag (ARL) measured in days from accounting year end date to auditor’s report date Abdullatif et al. (2023) 
AQAudit quality measured based on three models: Jones (1991), Dechow and Dichev (2002), Stubben (2010) and Small Profit. Abid et al. (2018); Hoitash et al. (2007); Francis and Wu (2009)
Interest variables: 
lnProx KMNatural logarithm of geographic distance between auditor and client office measured in kilometers multiplied by −1+Beck et al. (2019); Dong et al. (2018); Francis et al. (2022) 
lnProx minNatural logarithm of geographic distance between auditor and client office measured in minutes multiplied by −1+Beck et al. (2019); Dong et al. (2018); Francis et al. (2022) 
Control variables: 
Chair genChair gender, 1 if the chair of the board is female, 0 otherwiseBepari (2023); Rahaman and Karim (2023) 
FD ratioThe proportion of female directors on the board−/+Abdelfattah et al. (2021); Bepari (2023); Rahaman et al. (2023) 
AC sizeNatural logarithm of number of members in audit committee+Bepari (2023); Rahaman et al. (2023) 
Firm ageFirm age is measured in terms of the number of years from the establishment of the company+Rahaman et al. (2023) 
Audit tenAuditor’s tenure with the client in years+Lin and Yen (2022); Pinto and Morais (2019) 
Firm sizeNatural logarithm of total assets indicating the size of the firm+Pinto and Morais (2019); Rahaman et al. (2023) 
ROAReturn on assets, measures the profitability of the firm calculated as the net profit divided by total asset+Pinto and Morais (2019); Rahaman et al. (2023) 
YearEndDec31Year-end effect+Rahaman et al. (2023) 
Big41 if the audit firm is one of the big-10 auditors and 0 otherwise+Pinto and Morais (2019); Rahaman et al. (2023) 
IDRCorporate governance variable measured by independent directors’ ratio (IDR) compared to total board size+Rahaman et al. (2023) 
Source: Authors’ own creation

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