Non-Audit Fees, Auditor Independence, and Bond Ratings

Non-Audit Fees, Auditor Independence, and Bond Ratings Aaron D. Crabtree Department of Accounting and Information Systems Pamplin College of Business Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA 24061-0101 e-mail: acrabtre@vt.edu Duane M. Brandon Assistant Professor School of Accountancy Auburn University 301 Lowder Business Building Auburn, AL 26849-5247 email: branddm@auburn.edu John J. Maher Professor and Mahlon Harrell Research Fellow Department of Accounting and Information Systems Pamplin College of Business Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA 24061-0101 e-mail: jmaher@vt.edu phone: 540.231.4505 (Corresponding author) We wish to thank Jordan Lowe, Marshall Geiger, Kim Moreno, Jennifer Mueller, Susan Parker, participants of the Southeast AAA, and participants at the national AAA meeting in Hawaii for helpful comments and suggestions on previous drafts. We would also like to thank Mark DeFond (the Associate Editor) and two anonymous reviewers for comments and recommendations that have helped us to improve this paper. 1Non-Audit Fees, Auditor Independence, and Bond Ratings ABSTRACT Recent accounting scandals and perceived audit failures have resulted in excessive criticism of the accounting and auditing professions. The financial press has expressed disdain at the presumably substandard work that was completed on audit clients ostensibly at the expense of the public good. Our research investigates one aspect of this situation by exploring ...