上市公司审计委员会与年报风险信息披露——基于管理层信息操纵视角

上市公司年报风险信息是了解公司经营现状与预测未来发展的重要信息来源,它具有信息增量价值,但容易受到管理层信息操纵的影响。审计委员会作为公司治理的独立机制,对管理层具有内部监督作用。基于此,利用2010—2021年上市公司风险信息披露数据,实证检验了审计委员会对管理层信息操纵的治理作用。研究发现,审计委员会独立性、勤勉性和专业性越强,年报风险信息披露水平越高,且在不同性质市场环境中审计委员会的治理作用存在差异。机制检验结果表明,内部控制发挥了部分中介作用;此外,在内部治理环境较弱与外部监督压力较大时,审计委员会的治理作用更加显著。结论拓展了年报风险信息披露的影响因素研究,并通过构建不同维度的风险信息指标来综合衡量披露水平,证实了审计委员会对管理层信息操纵的治理效应,为审计委员会更好发挥监督效果以及监管部门进一步完善上市公司风险信息披露制度提供了重要支撑。     

机构投资者持股对持续经营审计意见市场反应的影响——基于2007—2014年深沪A股数据

研究不同类型持续经营审计意见市场反应的差异并检验机构投资者持股对其的影响,结果显示：被出具持续经营审计意见公司的累计超额收益率CAR显著为负,且被出具持续经营无法表示意见公司的CAR负值显著强于被出具持续经营无保留意见和保留意见公司的CAR的负值,但后两种审计意见对CAR的影响并无显著差异。另外机构投资者持股会加大不同类型持续经营审计意见市场反应的差异。结果表明,持续经营审计意见具有信息含量,并且机构投资者持股会加大该信息含量。     

Discretionary Accruals and Auditor Behaviour in Code-Law Contexts: An Application to Failing Spanish Firms

This study examines the relationship between earnings management and auditor behaviour in the pre-bankrupt client segment of the Spanish audit market. As proxies for auditor behaviour, we use type of audit firm (Big N/non-Big N) and type of audit report. In contrast to the USA, audit reports in Spain often include modifications other than a going-concern opinion. This allows us to study the relationship in more detail than is possible with US data. The results of our study show that discretionary accruals are negatively related to going-concern opinions but are positively related to reports modified for reasons other than going-concern problems. However, unlike Butler et al. (Journal of Accounting and Economics, 37, pp. 139–165, 2004) the negative relationship is explained not by liquidity survival tactics but by auditor conservatism. We find this conservatism not only in the value of discretionary accruals but also in the qualifications that accompany a going concern. In these cases GAAP violations have a much greater income effect and a stronger relationship with the reversal of manipulation accumulated over the years than with the manipulation introduced during the last year. Finally, our results suggest that Big N differentiation in a code-law country is context-specific and depends on the business risk parameter of the ‘audit risk model’. In particular, for high-risk firms, Big N auditors show a significantly lower level of discretionary accruals and a greater propensity to issue a going-concern opinion.     

上市公司非标准审计意见市场反应的差异性研究

文章以我国证券市场2005年和2006年获得非标准审计意见的上市公司为样本,运用事件研究法和多元回归分析模型,分年度考察了不同类型非标准审计意见的市场反应的差异.研究发现:我国证券市场能够识别持续经营审计意见和非持续经营审计意见之间的差异,但不能识别带强调事项段无保留意见和保留意见、无法表示意见之间的差异;2005年和2006年不同类型非标准审计意见的市场反应存在显著差异.     

预约披露、信号显示与审计意见

本文主要探寻年报预约披露日期所隐藏的信息内涵。研究发现，本年年报披露晚、上年年报披露晚、本年年报预约披露晚、本年年报披露比上年年报披露或比本年年报预约披露晚（年报披露迟滞时间长）的上市公司年报被出具非标准审计意见的可能性大。这意味着上市公司年报的预约披露时间以及执行情况有助于对年报的审计意见类型的判断。对市场和投资者而言，年报预约披露制度是一个很好的信号显示机制。     

Success in failure? Reflections on the changing Spanish audit environment

The 1990s in Spain have witnessed a significant shift in attitudes towards the role of auditing, with promises of more transparent reporting being replaced by talk of audit expectations gaps. This paper explores the changing atmosphere, both through an analysis of one of the most notorious scandals of recent times - involving the Banco Español de Credito (‘Banesto’) - and a more general review of the way the Spanish profession has responded to such downturns in public expectations of auditing. While at first sight, the profession appears to have become more defensive and the audit environment more competitive, the multinational accounting firms do appear to have strengthened their position in the Spanish audit market. Intriguingly, despite public expressions of concern with the quality and capabilities of auditing and the imposition of large fines on audit firms for inadequate audit work, proposed ‘solutions’ for improving audit quality include the establishment of a self-regulated audit regime and reductions in auditor liability. The Spanish experience allows for some timely reflections on the significance of an audit expectations gap and highlights the importance of viewing the audit function from an international perspective.     

关键审计事项披露与企业会计稳健性——基于准自然实验和文本分析的证据

关键审计事项披露对增强财务报告可信度、提高信息透明度以及提升企业会计信息质量具有重要意义。基于2014—2020年我国上市公司样本数据,采用多期双重差分法和文本分析方法,实证检验了关键审计事项披露对企业会计稳健性的影响。研究发现：关键审计事项披露提升了企业会计稳健性,且在非国有企业和净资产收益率小于6%的企业中正向影响更大;关键审计事项披露数量越多,关键审计事项结论性评述积极程度和关键审计事项审计应对力度越高,披露资产减值类和损益类关键审计事项对企业会计稳健性的提升越显著;进一步分析发现,这一效应在企业信息透明度较低以及审计监督效应较强的企业中更为明显;作用机制检验表明,关键审计事项披露通过提高市场感知的审计质量和报表盈余的审计质量提升了企业会计稳健性。     

Gender,the state and the audit profession: evidence from Spain (194288)

Extant knowledge on gender and auditing overwhelmingly relies on evidence gathered from a limited group of Anglo-Saxon countries. It is widely admitted, however, that gender issues are affected by the institutional contexts of the investigation. The Anglo-Saxon settings, we contend, embrace a number of idiosyncratic, institutional characteristics that advise caution in the generalizability of results. Our study addresses the role of gender in Spanish audit practice during the period 1942 to 1988. The environment of the Spanish audit profession witnessed the peaceful transition from a dictatorship to a full-fledged democracy as well as the emergence of a free market economy from a system characterized by stiff economic autarchy and an overriding intervention of the state in the economy. We found that the dominant role of the state in Spanish society affected the structure of the audit profession and made impossible the emergence of an autonomous project. In particular, our findings reveal that the audit profession did not have an independent strategy about the role of women at work, but mimicked the attitudes deployed by the state during our observation period.     

The corporate image of auditors in a developing audit market within the EU: the case of Spain

This paper examines the images of audit firms in Spain. Spain offers a valuable research context in that it is a relatively new audit market and one where the top company audits are not totally dominated by the large multinational audit firms, allowing for a comparison of the images of such firms against those associated with smaller, national audit firms. The findings of this survey are pertinent given the current level of debate internationally over the role, regulation and quality of auditing services and concerns over the potential impact of recent corporate scandals on auditor reputation.

Our study shows that the images of audit firms in Spain have differed on a number of dimensions, mostly concerned with the pricing of audit services and the spread of audit clients. Significantly, no differences were obtained in relation to the perceived competence or ethical standing of the large multinational and Spanish, national audit firms. The study also shows the areas of the audit firm's corporate image where the actual image of the firm differs significantly from that desired by the management of their clients.     

The influence of company characteristics and accounting regulation on information disclosed by Spanish firms

Accounting information is subject to two different influences: market pressures and pressure from regulatory bodies. This paper provides an empirical analysis of the influence of both these forces on information disclosure by Spanish firms. To test hypotheses concerning the influence of regulation, annual reports of three different years for 49 companies have been analysed. Given that new Spanish accounting rules have been in force since 1990, annual accounts of a sample of quoted companies have been analysed for the period 1989–1991. In order to consider the influence of positive accounting theory, several characteristics relating to company attributes were selected and tested empirically for the sample of 49 companies. The information disclosed by the sample companies was measured through an information index, based on a list of 50 items of information, and it was regressed on the variables related to company characteristics. The influence of regulation was analysed through a panel data analysis including time effects. The results suggest that time as a surrogate for regulation explains the level of information disclosure, although it does not influence the amount of voluntary information disclosed. However, several firm characteristics were also found to influence the level of disclosure, namely size, auditing and stock exchange.     

财务危机预警信息、宏观经济周期与审计意见类型

以沪深主板市场A股为研究对象，综合运用两阶段回归检验、双重聚类检验、调节效应分析等方法，探究财务危机预警信息对审计意见类型的影响机理。研究发现：财务危机指标恶化的企业被出具非标意见的可能性更大，这一现象在经济下行时表现得更加明显。运用两阶段回归检验和双重聚类检验结果仍然稳健。此外，经济周期对其的调节作用在不同审计主体、不同产权性质、不同经济区域以及不同规模的企业存在显著差异。在风险导向审计模式下，审计师可以将客户的财务危机预警信息作为判断审计风险的重要参考依据。     

碳市场对审计定价的溢出效应研究

基于渐进推进的碳市场试点作为外生事件，使用多期三重差分模型探讨碳市场对高碳企业审计定价的影响。研究发现：碳市场的建立会对审计定价产生积极的溢出效应，从审计定价的视角支持了波特假说；政策动态效应表明在排除政策预期效应后，碳市场当期就对审计定价产生影响且呈强化趋势。机制检验发现碳市场通过信号效应渠道和绿色转型渠道影响审计定价，市场化水平和地区环保意识可以进一步加强碳市场对审计定价的溢出效应，还排除了审计意见购买假说。异质性分析结果表明，碳市场覆盖的不同行业和不同的碳市场试点区域存在差异性和非对称性影响。     

审计师客户不匹配关系如何影响资本市场信息环境？——基于关键审计事项披露视角

新审计报告准则增加了披露关键审计事项的要求,以2016—2020年的关键审计事项文本数据为研究对象,考察了审计师客户不匹配关系对关键审计事项披露的影响。研究发现,向上的审计师客户不匹配关系显著提升了关键审计事项可读性、详细程度和数量,有助于优化资本市场信息环境;向下的审计师客户不匹配关系显著降低了关键审计事项可读性、详细程度和数量,无益于资本市场信息环境的改善。进一步分析发现,在向上的审计师客户不匹配关系中,审计师更倾向于清晰说明关键审计事项的披露原因,给出结论性评价,并且会披露更多的行业共性风险事项和公司特性风险事项。研究结论为完善关键审计事项披露制度、持续优化资本市场信息环境提供了有益借鉴。     

资本市场开放提高了审计费用吗？——基于行业竞争和市场竞争地位的双重调节效应

资本市场开放后,互联互通机制引进了国际资本和先进治理经验,这既增加境内资本市场信息风险水平,亦带来监督效应,审计费用也发生相应变化。基于2010—2019年中国上市公司数据分析发现：在资本市场开放后,上市公司审计费用显著提高;行业竞争程度负向调节资本市场开放对审计费用的正向影响且这一调节作用在高市场竞争地位的公司中更显著,而市场竞争地位负调节效应主要体现在高竞争行业中。结果表明,行业竞争与市场竞争地位会对资本市场开放与审计费用的关系产生双重调节效应,资本市场开放有助于低竞争行业公司和高竞争行业中的低市场竞争地位公司提高审计质量需求。进一步研究表明,资本市场开放后,非国有企业和内控弱有效企业审计费用显著提高。     

审计价格下限：经济学的解释、后果及对策

有学者对注册会计师审计收费进行过实证研究,均证明注册会计师在收取审计费用时。会自动形成价格下限。本文从审计产权和博弈学的角度,分析了审计价格下限形成的原因,认为审计价格下限降低了审计市场的效率,建议改变审计师的聘用方式、聘用时间,充分披露审计报告。以有效遏制此现象的形成。     

强制规则下内部控制审计的价值相关性研究——来自2011—2014年A股上市公司的经验证据

在强制规则下,披露非标准内部控制审计意见的公司数量在增加,但这些非标准内控审计意见是否具有信息含量有待检验。基于有效市场假说,以2011—2014年沪深两市A股上市公司为研究对象,运用事项研究方法实证考察非标准内部控制审计意见类型的上市公司披露内控审计报告之后的市场反应,同时实证回归不同类型非标准内控审计意见与市场反应之间的关系,结果显示：被出具非标准内部控制审计意见的上市公司,在内部控制报告披露之后的短期窗口之内具有负的累计超额收益率,但是无保留带强调项与保留意见、无法表示意见的市场反应区别不大。这表明内部控制审计意见具有价值相关性,有利于督促管理层加强内部控制建设,但是内部控制审计质量需要进一步提高。     

Market Implications of the Audit Quality and Auditor Switches: Evidence from China

Independent audits enhance the credibility of corporate financial reports and assist investors to make rational decisions in the capital market. Nonetheless, the utility of the auditing function depends upon the quality of audits, which is determined by the independence and expertise of auditors. Hence, auditor choice and switch will not only affect an audit's quality, but will also influence decisions made by investors and other market participants. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how investors respond to the quality of audits and auditor switches in the Chinese context. Empirical results show that the quality of an audit and switching to a larger auditor have a positive (negative) impact on earnings response coefficients (ERCs) for firms with positive (negative) abnormal earnings. In contrast, switching to a smaller auditor has a negative (positive) impact on ERCs for firms with positive (negative) abnormal earnings. These results suggest that large auditing firms (Top 10) in China are perceived as more effective for curbing income-increased earnings management, which leads to higher (lower) ERCs for clients with positive (negative) abnormal earnings. Firms' switching to a larger auditor may signal high-quality earnings. Therefore, investors more often increase stock prices when firms have positive abnormal earnings and less often depreciate prices for negative abnormal earnings. Similarly, switching to a smaller auditor may signal lower earning quality, resulting in opposite market responses. In general, the empirical evidence suggests that audit information is valued by the capital market in China. Large auditing firms have been able to product-differentiate themselves within the Chinese stock market.     

新审计报告与资本市场的信息反应——来自股价同步性和股价预测能力双维度的经验证据

新审计报告准则的施行旨在增加审计报告的信息含量及其决策相关性。以2015—2018年沪深非金融上市公司为样本，研究发现新审计报告施行后，上市公司的股价同步性显著下降，公司特质信息含量比例显著上升，股价特质信息效率显著提升,同时新审计报告的施行产生了增量信息。在此基础上，进一步分析新审计报告准则对资本市场特质信息效率的传导机制，发现投资者关注度对新审计报告(关键审计事项的披露数量)影响资本市场特质信息效率的过程中表现出显著的部分中介效应。分样本检验的结果表明，虽然AH股共同上市公司和非AH股共同上市公司之间的结果存在细微差异但整体趋势相似。通过对新审计报告的影响的分析，可以更好地理解该政策对资本市场的影响。     

持续经营审计意见与上市公司价值评估——基于公司财务报表估值的角度

从财务报表估值的角度,利用我国2000—2015年沪深A股上市公司数据,采用PSM倾向得分匹配法,研究持续经营审计意见作为权益市场的风险传递机制,其对上市公司价值评估产生的影响。研究发现,持续经营审计意见能够导致公众对财务困境公司的市场价值认可方式的转变,即随着首次持续经营非标意见的出具,公众对上市公司估值采取的双报表关注转变为重视资产负债表、轻视利润表的偏向关注,且这种关注是伴随着持续经营审计意见骤然出现的,而非随着财务困境的加深逐渐出现。进一步研究发现,持续经营审计意见的出具导致我国资本市场看低存货和无形资产,重视固定资产和长期负债的影响,因此持续经营非标意见为公司的清算或者调整风险提供了增量信息。     

复杂供应链网络风险识别下的审计质量研究——基于全球断供冲击的视角

通过重点考察复杂供应链网络风险识别下的审计质量，研究发现全球断供冲击下我国下游企业供应链运营的中断风险显著提升了审计质量。作用机制表明，全球断供冲击会影响审计师执业风险，进而提高下游企业的审计质量。异质性分析显示，上述效应在事务所信息化水平高、企业供应商集中度低、审计师具备行业专长及大规模事务所的样本中更加显著。经济后果检验表明，在全球断供冲击下高质量审计供给有助于降低企业股价同步性，提高资本市场定价效率。研究结论不仅丰富了供应链网络风险与审计质量的相关研究，也为识别复杂供应链网络风险传播机理、增强供应链竞争力提供了理论依据与经验参考。