SUMMARY We examine the relationship between aggressive income-increasing real earnings management (REM) and current and future audit fees. Managers pursue REM activities to influence reported earnings and, as a consequence, alter cash flows and sacrifice firm value. We posit that the implications of REM are considered in auditors' assessments of engagement risk related to the client's economic condition and result in higher audit fees. We find that, with the exception of abnormal reductions in SG&A, aggressive income-increasing REM is positively associated with both current and future audit fees. Additional analyses provide evidence consistent with increased effort combined with increased risk contributing to the current pricing effect, with increased business risk primarily driving the future pricing effect. We, therefore, provide evidence that aggressive income-increasing REM activities have a significant influence on auditor pricing behavior, consistent with the audit framework associating engagement risk with audit fees. JEL Classifications: G21; G34; M41. Data Availability: The data in this study are available from public sources indicated in the paper.

We examine auditor business risk by analyzing the relation between excess cash holdings and auditor pricing behavior. Prior research links excess cash holdings to risks associated with manager opportunism and external monitoring. Our analyses provide evidence of a positive relationship between excess cash and audit fees. The economic magnitude of the increase in total audit fees due to an increase in excess cash holdings is approximately 5% greater for firms in the top quartile of excess cash holdings versus those in the bottom quartile. We also find that the strength of shareholder rights reduces the positive relationship between excess cash and audit fees, and excess cash holdings are assigned lower audit fees among firms that follow an investment-intensive strategy than those that tend to hold on to their cash. Our article contributes to the literature by examining auditor pricing of excess cash holdings, including factors that affect auditors' risk perceptions, and ultimately provides unique insights into how auditors view agency conflicts indicated by excess cash holdings.

SYNOPSIS: A concurrent session at the 2011 American Accounting Association Annual Meeting featured the panel discussion “Results, Challenges, and Opportunities in Cross-Country Accounting Research.” The panelists summarized major contributions from prior research in international settings, factors a researcher should consider when motivating and designing cross-country studies, and topical areas that could potentially contribute to future international accounting research. This paper summarizes the panelists' prepared remarks, develops a framework for designing cross-country research projects, and provides illustrations of the framework.

Using agency theory, we explore the relationship between corporate governance mechanisms and bank risk. We employ panel data analysis to study the 97 largest European listed banks between 2006 and 2010, thereby covering the most recent international financial crisis. The results show that corporate governance mechanisms influence bank risk. During the financial crisis, different governance mechanisms can minimise or accentuate the agency conflict between shareholders and managers. In our model, bank size and G.D.P. per capita also exert a considerable influence.