The High-Speed Railway Opening and Audit Fees: Evidence from China

Abstract

By constructing a staggered difference-in-differences model, we examined the effect of the high-speed railway opening on audit fees and its mechanism. The high-speed railway opening significantly reduces audit fees, and the inhibitory effect is more pronounced in firms located in non-central cities and small- and medium-sized audit firms. Furthermore, the high-speed railway opening mainly affects the audit fees by intensifying the competition in the audit market, but information asymmetry has no significant impact, indicating that the high-speed railway opening mainly reduces the audit fees by reducing the audit costs. In addition, the high-speed railway opening can improve the audit quality, which further shows that the high-speed railway opening can promote reasonable competition in the audit market.