Predicting Audit Fees: A Multivariate Analysis Objective: The objective of this assignment is to utilize various analysis techniques to predict audit fees based on various financial and non-financial factors such as market capitalization, industry, auditor, balance sheet assets, beta, and sales. Dataset: Use a dataset containing information on audit fees, market capitalization, industry classification, auditor details, balance sheet assets, beta values, and sales for a sample of companies. See details of variables in the appendix. Starting Point: Using Zhang and Myrteza (1995) as a starting point, conduct an abridged literature review to familiarise yourself with the research objective. Tasks: 1. Data Exploration: o Provide a summary of the dataset, including descriptive statistics, missing values, and outliers. o Visualize the relationships between audit fees and each predictor variable using scatter plots. 2. Correlation Analysis: o Calculate and interpret the correlation matrix between audit fees and predictor variables. o Identify the variables with the highest and lowest correlations with audit fees. 3. Regression Analysis: o Perform a multiple linear regression analysis with audit fees as the dependent variable and all predictor variables as independent variables. o Evaluate the overall fit of the regression model using appropriate statistics (R-squared, F-statistic). o Interpret the regression model coefficients, paying particular attention to the significance levels