We provide new evidence on audit pricing differences within the Big 4 audit firms in the U.S. market. Specifically, we show that PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) consistently earns above-average audit fee premiums relative to the other Big 4 firms. The industry expertise research stream argues that an audit firm with greater competency will be able to differentiate itself from its competitors in terms of within-industry market share and charge an audit fee premium for its services. We find that PwC has maintained its leadership position as the market share leader across most industries in the U.S. market. More important, we also find that the evidence of an “industry specialist” audit fee premium is consistently observed for the group of PwC specialists, but not for the group of other (non-PwC) specialists. Thus, the existing literature appears to have confounded a generalized PwC fee premium (as was first observed by Simunic [1980]) with an industry specialist fee premium in U.S. audit markets.

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四大会计师事务所是否同质？审计定价的进一步证据

我们提供有关美国市场四大审计公司内部审计价格差异的新证据。具体来说，我们显示，普华永道（PricewaterhouseCoopers，PwC）相对于其他四大公司而言始终获得高于平均水平的审计费溢价。行业专业知识研究流认为，具有较强竞争力的审计公司将能够在行业内市场份额方面与竞争对手区分开来，并为其服务收取审计费溢价。我们发现普华永道继续保持其在美国市场上大多数行业中市场份额领导者的领导地位。更重要的是，我们还发现，普华永道专家组始终观察到“行业专家”审计费溢价的证据，而其他（非普华永道）专家组则始终如此。因此，