Masters Proposal Presentation by Andrew Priest

Sunday, 13 May 2012


The School of Accounting, Finance and Economics invites you to a Masters Proposal Presentation by Andrew Priest:

Not-for-profit organisations: An Australian study of audit specialisation 

Australia's 600,000 charities who account for nearly five per cent of Australia's GDP and whose contribution is growing at eight per cent per year are coming into a new era of accountability and regulation. A significant change faces this sector, as on 1 October 2012 the sector for the first time in Australia will have its own national regulator, the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission. This development will promote changes in terms of accountability for the not-for-profit sector, which is a relatively unexplored sector of the economy.

Accounting and more specifically auditing play an important role in a charity's accountability processes. This study uses a stratified sample of 250 Australian charities' annual reports for the period 2010-2011 to study three aspects of the accountability value adding chain to contribute to our understanding of audit fees and auditor specialisation. The three objectives of this study are to:

(1) estimate and develop a model of Australian charity fee audit determinants;
(2) to determine if there is evidence of a Big 4 audit firm fee premium in an audit market where the Big 4 may not dominate; and
(3) to test for the existence of a fee premium pricing amongst non-Big 4 audit firms. This study will add to our knowledge of audit fees and audit fee premiums in the not-for-profit audit marketplace. 

Supervisors: Dr Theo Christopher and Associate Professor Colin Dolley

Date: Thursday 5th July
Time:  10:00 - 11:00am
Location: Joondalup campus, building 2, room 443 (Val Pervan boardroom)

For more information contact Bev Lurie, or phone (08) 6304 5237.