Non‐Audit Services and Knowledge Spillovers: Evidence from New Zealand

Abstract

New Zealand provides a natural laboratory to test whether knowledge spillovers arise from auditor‐provided non‐audit services. Unlike prior research, we do not assume constant audit quality but first test whether audit quality varies with auditor‐provided non‐audit services and audit efficiency. Results show that higher non‐audit fees paid to the auditor in conjunction with shorter audit lag does not reduce the quality of the audit. Results reveal a negative association between non‐audit fees and audit lag, thus suggesting the presence of knowledge spillovers. However, the knowledge spillover effect is limited to the city office providing both the audit and non‐audit services.

Keywords: audit, audit quality, non‐audit, fee, knowledge spillover