Research Proposal The association between corporate governance and audit fees in China在中国公司治理之间的关联及审计费用的研究计划
1. Introduction and motivation:管理学论文
The purpose of this study is to examine the association between the corporate governance and the audit fees in China. Previous empirical research which has been taken on this area suggested two main possible relationships: the demand-base perspective and the audit-base perspective. The audit-base perspective suggests that the corporate governance is negatively related with the audit fee because with the strong corporate governance the audit risk is reduced to auditors so that the audit test will be less, which would lead to a lower audit fees (Muniandy, 2007).审计的基础的观点认为，企业管治是负相关的审计费用，因此强有力的公司治理，以便将降低审计风险（Muniandy，2007）。 The demand-base perspective suggests that the corporate governance is positively related with the audit fees because strong corporate governance needs the additional assurance from the auditors. For example: Collier and Gregory (1996) found that the audit committee effectiveness is positively related with the audit fee. Abbott, Parker, Peter and Raghunandan(2003) found that the audit committee independence and the expertise are significantly positively related with the audit fees by examining 492 firms.
Besides these two perspectives, Griffin, lont and Sun(2008) estimates a model that reflects two countervailing but interacting relations between corporate governance and auditing fees. They point that “a fee increase because auditing services are one costly means to attain better corporate governance, and a fee reduction because auditors are assumed to price their service to reflect the benefits of the better governance, including auditing “.他们指出，“审计服务的费用增加，是因为用了一个昂贵的手段来达到改善公司治理和减费的目的，此外还因为核数师认为其服务的价格，以反映的好处，更好的治理，包括审计”。
Although much research has been under taken on the association between the corporate governance and the audit fees, it has largely been focused on the developed countries (US, UK and Australia) where the corporate governance is more mature and the roles of boards with the corporate governance is more clearly defined and achieved. In contrast with these developed countries, there are many problems in the corporate governance in China. 与这些发达国家相比，在中国的企业管治还存在着许多问题。First, most of the public company stock is still held by the government, there are much different between the largest shareholder’s holding and second shareholder’s holding.首先，大多数仍然是由政府举办的上市公司股票，第一大股东的控股和第二大股东的持股之间有很大的不同。 Second, the percentage of the percentage of the traded shares is small.其次，交易的股票的百分比过小。 Third, the board of directors and the Supervisory Board have played a limited role in supervision function.三，董事会和监事会的监督职能发挥了有限的作用。 Fourth, the protection of the minority shareholders is very limited as compared with that in more mature capitalist countries. (Cui, 1996)管理学论文
Consequently, the areas for study for the Chinese market are rather different. There has been less research about the association between the corporate governance and the audit fee in China than that in the developed countries. Zhang (2007) found that if government holds the biggest percentage of the share, the audit fee tend to be lower. Pan (2008) found that the corporate governance index (which is related with the independence of the boards and the information discourse of the corporate governance) is negatively related with the audit fees in China. 公司治理指数负相关（这是与董事会的独立性和企业管治的信息话语）在中国的审计费用。
2. Research objective研究目的
The overall aim of the proposed work is to examine the association between the corporate governance and the audit fees in China.拟议的工作总体目标是研究在中国的公司治理和审计费用之间的关联。
The objectives and innovations of the work are as follows:
a. To verify the relationship between the determinant factors of the corporate governance and audit fees in China by using a wider range of control variables than those have been used before.
b. To make some suggestions for the corporate governance structure in China
c. To make some suggestions for the regulation of the auditing fees market
3. The proposed structure of the research:
Chapter1在中国公司治理之间的关联及审计费用的研究计划
-Introduction
-A background: corporate governance and the audit fees
Chapter2
-The association between the corporate governance and the audit fees: a literature review
Chapter3
-Research design
-Methodology
Chapter4
-Results
Chapter5
–Conclusion and recommendation for the corporate governance structure and the audit fees in China
References
Appendix
4. Data sources资料来源
I will choose the A shares companies from the Chinese market from 2009 to 2010 as the sample. I will reject the companies from the financial industry and the B shares companies and the H shares companies.我会选择2009至2010年中国市场的A股公司为样本。而不是来自金融业的公司和B股公司和H股公司。
Financial data, information such as the audit fees and the corporate governance will be primarily obtained from the CSMAR (China Stock Market Accounting Research) data Base, but this will be supplemented by data from the Yahoo Finance.
In the research, the data would be analyzed by TSM software and the Excel.
According to the former research and the circumstance of the Chinese market, the key variables are following:以下是变量
Control variables:控制变量：
a. Whether the audit firm is a large multinational
b. The size of the company(natural log of the total assets)
c. Audit complexity (number of the subsidiaries)
d. The auditor’s opinion about the company
e. The location of the company
f. The industry of the company
g. The asset-liability ratio
h. Inventory ratio
i. Receivable ratio
j. Whether a loss is reported in the last three years
Explanatory variables:解释变量
a. Whether the firm has an audit committee
b. The meeting time of the board
c. Whether the government holds the most percentage of the shares
d. The traded shares/ the total shares
e. The number of independent directors/ the total directors
f. The average salaries of the independent directors
g. The stock proportion of the controlling stockholder
h. The independent director expertise
i. The shares of the board numbers/ the total shares
5. The methodology
Following the previous studies (e.g. Peel and Clatworthy, 2001; Abbott et al 2003; Shilo et al 2010), I will use the ordinary least square multivariable linear regression model to examine the association between the corporate governance and the audit fees in China. The software I will use are the TSM and the Excel.
The hypotheses which would be tested are following:
H1: Whether the firm has an audit committee is positively related with the audit fees
H2: The meeting time of the board is positively related with the audit fees
H3: Whether the government holds the most percentage of the shares is negatively related with the audit fees
H4: The traded shares/ the total shares is positively related with the audit fees
H5: The number of independent directors/ the total directors is positively related with the audit fees
H6: The average salaries of the independent directors is positively related with the audit fees
H7: The stock proportion of the controlling stockholder is positively related with the audit fees
H8: The independent director expertise is positively related with the audit fees
H9: The shares of the board numbers/ the total shares is negatively related with the audit fees