감사위원회 구성원 특성과 초과감사보수의 관련성

[Purpose]We verify the validity of constructs of audit committee member characteristics. In addition, we not only examine the effects of characteristics of audit committee member on excess audit fees, but also compare the magnitude of the effects. [Methodology]We analyze the non－financial 1,390 firm－year data adopting audit committees listed in the KOSPI market of Korea Exchange between 2001 and 2012 as sample. Through the review of prior studies, we select six different characteristics of audit committee member including the ratio of outside directors, the existence of a gray outside directors, the existence of accounting or financial experts, the existence of former politicians or government officials, tenure of the outside director, and the concurrent position of the audit committee member as an outside director of other firms. We also apply factor analysis on six different characteristics of audit committee member and extract common factors as constructs for characteristics of audit committee member. In addition, applying ordinary least square regression, we examine the effects of common factors for characteristics of audit committee member on excess audit fees. [Findings]The ratio of outside directors and the existence of gray outside directors in the audit committees are extracted as the first common factor (Factor 1), and we name the extracted Factor 1 as ‘audit committee independence’. The existence of accounting or financial expert and the existence of former politicians or government officials as outside directors in the audit committees are extracted as the second common factor (Factor 2), and Factor 2 is defined as ‘audit committee expertise’. The tenure of outside directors and the ratio of outside directors with concurrent positions as executives of other firms are extracted as the third common factor (Factor 3) and it is titled as ‘audit committee ties with the managers’. Further, we find that while the audit committee independence is positively related to excess audit fees, audit committee ties with the managers are negatively associated with excess audit fees. These test results imply that audit committee independence and audit committee ties with the managers are important determinants for audit efforts of outside auditors. We also find that the effect of audit committee independence is more powerful than that of audit committee ties with the managers. This result implies that audit committee independence plays a more powerful role than audit committee ties with the managers do. [Implications]Unlike previous research, this study not only verify the constructs of audit committee member characteristics, but also analyze and compare the effects of characteristics of audit committee member on excess audit fees. Further Korean regulatory authorities could use these empirical test results as supporting evidence in improving policy on audit committee.