ABSTRACT CSR reports vary in their textual content, but evidence on whether this variation matters for auditors is limited. This study tests whether CSR report similarity, reflecting the extent to which a firm's CSR disclosures align with those of its industry peers, affects audit pricing. Using a sample of Chinese firms from 2014–2024, this work reveals that higher CSR disclosure similarity is related to lower audit fees. This effect is driven by a reduction in firm risk, lower accrual‐based earnings management, and improved information disclosure quality. These findings are robust to using alternative proxies, addressing endogeneity problem, and controlling for other CSR report characteristics. The results indicate that CSR report comparability is a useful signal that reduces auditors’ information processing costs.
Yi Tan (Sun,) studied this question.