在本篇文章中，我們根據Kim et al. (2016)採用芝加哥選擇權交易所波動率指數來衡量總體經濟不確定性（Chicago Board Option Exchange’s Volatility Indexes），檢測總體經濟不確定性對審計公費的影響。本文以2002年至2014年所有在COPUTAT資料庫以及Audit Analytics資料庫中的美國公司作為樣本，並刪除金融產業、公共事業與無法進行產業分類的公司以及具有遺漏值與極端值的觀察值。本篇研究發現在總體經濟高度不確定的情況下，事務所接受公費減少，降低顧客的審計公費。此外，我們也透過總體經濟不確定性與事務所產業專精的交乘項，檢測由產業專精事務所查核的公司，在總體經濟不確定性高時，公費減少的效果是否有所不同。本篇文章的實證結果指出在總體經濟不確定性的情況下，產業專精事務所降低公費的程度會大於非產業專精事務所，但其仍然具有公費溢酬。然而當總體經濟不確定性較高的時候，產業專精事務所因降低公費，導致其所收取的公費溢酬較少。

In this study, we examine whether and how macroeconomic uncertainty affects audit fees. In line with Kim et al. (2016), we use the Chicago Board Option Exchange’s Volatility Indexes as the proxy of macroeconomic uncertainty. Our samples include U.S. firms listed in both the COMPUTAT database and the Audit Analytics database without missing values over the period 2002-2014 (except firms with two-digit SIC codes of 49, 60-67 and 99). We find that under high macroeconomic uncertainty, auditors accept fee reductions. We also add an interaction term of macroeconomic uncertainty with industry specialization to investigate if market leaders are also influenced by macroeconomic uncertainty. The empirical results show that industry-specialized auditors reduce more fees than non-specialized auditors during periods of high macroeconomic uncertainty, while industry-specialized auditors still earn fee premiums, and the fee premiums are alleviated.

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