Audit Fees and Audit Committees: Some Evidence from France

This study examines the relationship between audit fees and the voluntary adoption, as well as the characteristics, of audit committees. If we assume the existence of a complementarity effect between internal and external governance mechanisms, then audit fees would be higher for a company with an audit committee. Using audit fee data collected from a sample of 150 listed companies in France, we find that the voluntary adoption of audit committees is positively and significantly associated to audit fee levels. We also find significant positive relations between audit fees and audit committee independence, and activity. These results are consistent with the notion that audit committees are a complementary mechanism for a high-quality external audit.