Our study’s contribution is threefold. First, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first cross-country comparative study
to consider the effect of XBRL on audit fees. In fact, we use large data sets with eight-year time spans for the US and Japan,
thereby enhancing the generalizability of our findings. Furthermore, we also observe differences regarding the effect of XBRL
between the US and Japan, which are characterized by very different legal frameworks (La Porta et al., 2003).