information asymmetry (Spence, 1973). The two basic methods of conveying a signal in the audit market are
to choose reputable information intermediaries voluntarily to assure outside investors of the credibility of
accounting information (Fan and Wong, 2005) and to purchase more audit services (Carcello et al., 2002).
Both methods result in higher audit costs and fees. It is obvious that the only companies with the incentive
to adopt these methods are those with better corporate governance. Such companies prefer the strict test of
an external audit to signal their governance level to the market and improve firm value. Therefore, companies
with high-level corporate governance may also experience higher audit fees, which leads to the following alternative
hypothesis.
Hypothesis 1b. Audit fees are higher for companies with high-level corporate governance.