Concentration on the German Audit Market — An Empirical Analysis of the Concentration on the German Market for Stock Corporation Audits

Abstract

The audit market has changed significantly over the last few years. Clients' internationalisation and their extended service demands have required a diversification that can best be delivered by large and internationally-adjusted audit firms. This demand resulted in important mergers among national as well as with international audit companies going along with a growing concentration on the German audit market. This study is based on the 200 largest German listed stock corporations with respect to average stock capital for the years 1991 and 1994 and is concerned with the investigation into whether the concentration process continues and whether there are developments representing German particularities. Copyright

Non‐Audit Fees, Market Leaders and Concentration in the German Audit Market: A Descriptive Analysis

“…Thus, it is the first study to analyze market concentration based on actual fees (previous studies did not have access to such data and had to rely on surrogates to measure concentration, e.g. Helmenstein, 1996; Marten & Schultze, 1998; Quick & Wolz, 1999; Strickmann, 2000; Lenz & Bauer, 2004; and Koecke, 2006). What is more, all of the aforementioned studies were performed for datasets from 2002 or before, in other words before the regulatory framework was reworked 2…”

Influence of Banks on Company Auditor Choice: The Case of Japan

“…For example, a close relationship between companies and their bankers is also observed in Germany. Quick & Wolz (2002, 186) noted that ‘contrary to Anglo‐American countries, German corporations generally prefer debt rather than equity capital funding . .…”

Structure and Nature of Competition in the Market for Financial Audit Services in Mexico

“…In this sense, the total audit services fees of each audit firm would be an appropriate measure of its absolute and relative position in the market. In this regard, the international literature highlights various jobs that audit fees charged by audit firms clients have been widely used to understand the structure of the audit market (Moizer and Turley, 1987;Tomczyk and Read, 1989;Iyer andIyer, 1996, Pong, 1999;Quick and Wolz, 1999).…”

“…In this line, accounting researchers have demonstrated in their empirical work on the concentration in the audit market that the results are sensitive to the used "surrogate activity" indicator (Moizer and Turley, 1987;Tomczyk and Read, 1989;Pong, 1999;Quick and Wolz, 1999). Once we have selected the surrogate as a basis to measure the activity of the audit market, it is now necessary to define the measures of concentration through which we can understand how it is distributed the audit market between all active participants in it.…”