Board characteristics, audit committee, and audit fees : Evidence from Swedish listed companies

This thesis examines the empirical relationship between a set of board characteristics (i.e. independence, diligence and expertise), audit committee (existence, characteristics and status within the board), and audit fees in a sample of Nasdaq OMX Stockholm-listed companies. The author investigates the relationship using a sample of 187 company-year observations for year 2011. Through multivariate regression analysis, the author found that more independent boards are associated with lower audit fees, while more expert boards and audit committee existence are associated with higher audit fees at the conventional levels. Results as such suggest that board independence, expertise and audit committee existence can influence the demand for audit coverage. Through analyzing a subsample of 116 companies with audit committees, the author further found that more audit committee meetings are associated with higher audit fees, while wholly independent audit committees and an increase in the relative size of audit committee to nomination committee are associated with lower audit fees at the conventional levels. These findings are supportive for the Swedish regulatory requirement of adopting audit committees in the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm-listed companies effective from 2009 and have implications for enhancing board- and audit committee effectiveness in the Swedish listed companies.