M.A. Thesis:

Investigation the Moderating Role of ownership Concentration in the Relationship between Monitoring Function of the Board and Audit fees

The ownership concentration, as one of the most important issues in corporate ownership, may increase the supervision and eliminate the problem of fraudulent financial reporting resulting in positive changes in the organization, however, other mechanisms may act on the contrary. The auditing fees is one of the issues which plays a crucial role in this regard. Ownership of the company- as one of the key factors of corporate governance - can affect the auditing fees through the impact it has on operations, on the complexity of operations and the auditing risk. In order to explain the role of the moderator of ownership concentration in the relative relationship between board independence and audit fees, the agency theory and corporate governance theory, it has been assumed that ownership structure is an effective means of controlling management. Whatever, the shareholding of a shareholder from a company is less, the benefits of supervising the manager's behavior will be less. Therefore, focusing on the stocks will lead to greater oversight of manager behavior and reduced opportunism.In this study, the data analysis was also based on a regression with the panel data as well as the data gathered from the selected companies in the Stock Exchange between 2012 - 2016. Evidence and empirical findings of the research showed that there is a significant relationship between the independence of the board of directors and audit fees, thus the first hypothesis of the research is not rejected at the 5% level. It was also observed that the concentration of ownership would modify the relationship between the board's independence and audit fees, thus the second hypothesis of the research is not rejected at the 5% level. In sum, the existence of a positive relationship resulting from the moderated effects of ownership concentration on the relationship between audit fees and the independence of the board of directors is theoretically upheld.

Keywords: .Independence of the Board, Concentration of Ownership, Audit Fees.