This study examines the factors affecting audit fees in firms listed primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa countries by focusing on the relationship between ownership structure and audit fees. The study uses an unbalanced panel dataset of 531 observations of non-financial firms collected from annual reports for the years 2005 to 2009. The findings show that audit fees vary with ownership structure. Particularly, the study shows managerial ownership and concentrated ownership are negatively related to audit fees, whereas foreign ownership is related positively to audit fees. This study provides valuable insights on effects of ownership structure on audit fees pricing. Specifically, the study emphasizes that decisions of pricing of audit fees should consider characteristics of the ownership structure of a firm. The study makes contributions to the literature that focuses on the nexus between corporate governance and audit fees. Particularly, the findings provide empirical evidence of impacts of ownership structure on audit fees in Sub-Saharan African context, which is characterized by less developed financial markets and a weak institutional environment relative to developed countries where most studies are conducted.

This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the effect of real earnings management on audit fees in selected firms from Tehran Stock Exchange. The study gathers the necessary information from selected stocks listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. The proposed study uses the information of 63 firms over a four-year period from 2009 to 2012, which leaves us to have 252 data. Using some regression study, The study has confirmed real earnings management influences positively on audit fees in general. In addition, while real earnings management through an increase in sales does not influence on audit fees, the survey has concluded that real earnings management through increase in production costs as well as decrease in discretionary expenditures influences positively on audit fees.