Jensen and Meckling (1976) suggest that the demand for auditing stems from a
desire to reduce management shirking resulting from information asymmetries that
arise from the separation of ownership and control. Because of such information
asymmetries, agency costs are imposed on auditees (management). However, as
Jensen and Meckling (1976) demonstrate, management can incur bonding
expenditures that reduce the agency costs that management would otherwise
bear by voluntarily increasing the observability of their actions by hiring independent
auditors to monitor their behavior