The impact of labour unions on external auditor selection and audit scope: evidence from the Korean market

We examine whether labour unions influence external auditor selection and audit scope. As a major user group of financial information, labour unions likely demand financial information of high quality and thus high-quality audits. As a union’s request for wage increases is likely strong when a firm is performing well, management facing wage negotiations with the labour union has incentives to manipulate earnings downward and may therefore prefer auditors who allow more discretion. Using union data unique to Korea during 2005–2008, we find that firms with a stronger labour union tend to choose higher-quality auditors (i.e. Big N or industry specialist auditors). We also find that unionization is negatively (positively) associated with positive (negative) abnormal audit fees and audit hours, and the effects are more pronounced when the union is stronger and more active. Given that departures from normal audit fees and audit hours in either direction arguably impair audit quality, this finding is consistent with our prediction of unions’ demand for high-quality audits. Overall, our findings suggest that labour unions play an important role in determining audit quality.     

Professionals inside the board room: accounting expertise of directors and dividend policy

Directors’ personal attributes have significant impacts on governance effectiveness. We study whether directors’ accounting expertise affects corporate financial policy and investigate dividend in specific. We construct a dataset of audit committee directors’ accounting expertise for Standard & Poor 500 firms from 2005 to 2012. We first verify directors’ monitoring roles by showing that firms with accounting expert sitting on their audit committees demonstrate stronger accounting conservatism. In our main tests, we find that these firms maintain lower dividend payment level, which are less sensitive to earnings volatility. This suggests directors’ advisory roles in financial policy. We further show that our accounting expertise cannot be subsumed by management ability. In additional test, we further examine the baseline results conditional on analyst forecast error. Our findings highlight the importance of directors’ professional expertise in fulfilling their governance roles.     

审计重要性水平、事务所规模与审计意见

文章以财务重述公司为样本,探讨了审计重要性水平、事务所规模与审计意见之间的关系.研究发现,重要性水平影响审计意见的类型,超过重要性水平的错误更容易被出具非标意见;不同规模的事务所对重要性水平的执行标准是有差异的,规模大的事务所对超过重要性水平的错误更加敏感,"大所"在执行审计业务时,时超过重要性水平的错误报表更容易出具非标意见.研究结论支持"大所"出具的审计意见更严格、审计服务质量更高这一论断.     

审计收费与审计质量的关系研究——基于第一大股东不同持股比例的视角

以2002—2009年度因财务舞弊受到中国证监会处罚的上市公司为样本,分析在第一大股东不同持股比例下,审计收费与审计质量的关系,在控制了审计意见的相关影响因素后发现:在上市公司第一大股东持股比例较高时,审计收费与审计质量呈负相关;第一大股东持股比例较低时,审计收费与审计质量正相关。     

企业产权、财务重述与审计师变更——来自我国上市公司的经验证据

文章运用我国上市公司的数据,实证检验了上市公司的财务重述行为对审计师变更的影响。研究结果表明,对于国有企业来说,重述公司的审计师发生变更的概率要低于非重述公司,但如果重述公司上期被出具了标准无保留意见,审计师变更的概率会上升;在非国有企业中,未发现重述与审计师变更之间存在显著相关关系。对国有企业来说,财务重述与审计师变更类型之间无显著关系;在非国有企业,有微弱的证据表明,财务重述公司更容易将事务所变更为小所,如果上期被出具了标准无保留意见,这种倾向更明显。研究结果表明,上市公司和审计师之间存在"审计合谋",这一问题在国有企业中更为严重。     

独立审计费用影响因素分析——基于消费者效用视角

真实的会计信息披露是证券市场健康发展的必要条件.独立审计费用在一定条件下是保证审计质量的前提.由于"被动消费产品"的存在可能导致上市公司对审计费用的不合理降低并选择效用指数低的审计师,进而造成审计质量的降低并危害到外部相关者的利益.     

供应商关系的公司价值鉴证效应

文章以中国制造业上市公司为研究对象,考察了外部审计鉴证是否可以替代内部关系治理来提升供应商关系的价值创造效应。研究发现,紧密的供应商关系显著提升了公司的价值,同时也降低了企业对高质量审计鉴证服务的需求,但这种需求的降低并没有弱化供应商关系对公司价值的提升作用,说明内部关系治理与高质量审计鉴证服务存在替代效应。同时,随着外部制度环境的改善,上述替代效应会减弱。文章为理解外部审计鉴证与以关系治理为主要特征的转型经济社会中的关系网络如何联合影响公司价值创造提供了更为直接的经验证据,从外部审计鉴证的视角进一步丰富和拓展了关系型交易影响公司价值的研究文献。     

期望审计风险确认与计量的影响因素分析

期望审计风险确认与计量是以审计人员评估的重要性水平为前提的。审计人员在确定期望审计风险时,应考虑影响审计职业风险的因素对期望审计风险水平的影响。     

四大会计师事务所能提供高质量的审计服务吗?———基于高管薪酬契约有效性的经验证据

以财务报告为主体的财务信息可在公司治理中发挥重要作用.高质量的审计服务能够提高薪酬—业绩的敏感性,从而保证薪酬契约的达成和实现.本文以沪深两市2002年-2009年度上市公司为研究样本,分析外部审计治理效应对薪酬—业绩敏感度的影响,考察四大会计师事务所审计过的上市公司是否具有更高的薪酬—业绩敏感度.通过全样本、转换样本以及HECKMAN自选择偏误校正等方法发现：在薪酬—业绩敏感度上,四大会计师事务所与非四大会计师事务所审计过的上市公司并不存在显著差异,国内六大会计师事务所审计过的上市公司具有更高的薪酬—业绩敏感度.     

Professional scepticism in two economies with cultural differences and the public interest: evidence from China and the United States

Auditors’ professional scepticism is a topical concern for the audit profession and public interest. This study examines professional scepticism among fraud auditors in the forensic accounting profession in China (CN) and the United States (US). Data are collected from 373 and 401 CN and US auditors, respectively, in two economies with cultural differences. The multinomial logistic regression results indicate that both CN and US fraud auditors have higher levels of professional scepticism than general auditors do. There are no significant differences in traits between CN and US fraud auditors. High-ranking fraud auditors have higher levels of professional scepticism than junior-ranking fraud auditors for both CN and US auditors. The results of our sensitivity analysis validate the main results and indicate the findings’ robustness. Results support the normative pillar of the institutional theory (Scott 1995) that asserts actors (fraud auditors) of institutions would share common norms and beliefs in a social system because they are rooted in professional affiliations (accounting bodies) (DiMaggio and Powell 1983). Our findings contribute to the literature in the arena of the interests of the public and the economy.     

Do technology shocks lower hours worked? – Evidence from Japanese industry level data

We examine the response of productivity and hours worked to technology and nontechnology shocks using the Japan Industrial Productivity (JIP) Database. We find that, at the aggregate level, positive technology shocks increase hours worked both in the manufacturing and the nonmanufacturing sector, accounting for a large fraction in the variances of hours worked. At the two- and three-digit industry levels, in contrast, we find that the correlation between productivity and hours worked in response to sectoral technology shocks tends to be negative. Further, we find that neither aggregate nor sectoral technology shocks appear to be the dominant factor underlying fluctuations in hours worked at the disaggregate level. The productivity decline in response to nontechnology shocks is not related to a permanent change in the relative size of industries.     

法律制度变迁、审计师选择与企业价值——基于实际控制人掏空行为视角的实证研究

本文利用2004-2009年民营上市公司的数据,首次对2006年我国将实际控制人掏空行为列入刑法这一事件对上市公司的审计师选择和企业价值所产生的影响进行了实证研究。研究发现在加大对实际控制人掏空行为的处罚力度后,掏空风险较高的公司更倾向于聘请小型会计师事务所,而且实际控制人的掏空行为有所减少。刑法调整后,由于实际控制人与中小股东的代理问题得到了有效的缓解,存在掏空风险的公司的企业价值有了显著提升,且掏空风险高的公司企业价值提升得更为显著。进一步研究还发现:在抑制实际控制人掏空行为、提升企业价值方面,法律治理能替代独立审计治理的作用,降低企业的监督成本。     

基于事项法会计信息系统对审计工作的影响及对策

传统会计信息系统由于其本身存在着缺陷,已越来越不能满足用户的多样化需求。随着计算机网络技术和数据库技术的飞速发展,基于事项法的会计信息系统将无可替代地成为下一代会计信息系统,其对审计工作产生重大影响,审计人员必须积极应对。     

Fact and Fiction in EU‐Governmental Economic Data

Abstract. To detect manipulations or fraud in accounting data, auditors have successfully used Benford's law as part of their fraud detection processes. Benford's law proposes a distribution for first digits of numbers in naturally occurring data. Government accounting and statistics are similar in nature to financial accounting. In the European Union (EU), there is pressure to comply with the Stability and Growth Pact criteria. Therefore, like firms, governments might try to make their economic situation seem better. In this paper, we use a Benford test to investigate the quality of macroeconomic data relevant to the deficit criteria reported to Eurostat by the EU member states. We find that the data reported by Greece shows the greatest deviation from Benford's law among all euro states.     

层次分析法在评价内部控制风险中的运用

风险导向审计要求审计人员对错报风险的识别、评估和应对应贯穿于审计过程的事前、事中和事后,同时,要求审计人员将审计资源有效分配到最容易导致财务报表出现重大错报的领域。在被审计单位整体层面了解和评价内部控制是必须实施的风险评估程序,在此基础上可以设计和实施控制测试等进一步审计程序。     

政治关联、审计需求与会计信息质量——基于我国上市公司的经验证据

以2005—2008年在我国沪深两市的民营上市公司为样本,实证分析了上市公司的政治关系、会计信息质量与审计需求之间的相互关系。研究结果显示,有政治关系的上市公司更倾向于选择低水平的审计师,而选择低质量外部审计服务的上市公司的会计信息质量也更低。     

家族创始人职业经历与企业财务保守行为研究

基于创始人自身特征的异质性,文章研究了家族创始人职业经历与企业财务保守行为的关系。研究发现,与家族创始人具有企业部门职业经历的企业相比,创始人具有公共部门职业经历的企业财务杠杆更低,短期借款占比更小,现金持有更多,且连续三年采用低杠杆的可能性更高。进一步地,企业所处行业的产品市场不确定性越高,家族创始人公共部门职业经历与企业财务保守行为的正相关关系越强。此外,家族创始人具有公共部门职业经历的企业会计及市场业绩均更好。研究表明,家族创始人具有公共部门职业经历的企业财务决策更为保守,原因在于这类家族创始人的风险厌恶程度较高,使企业更易形成相对保守的文化氛围。文章从创始人职业经历异质性的角度发展了家族企业财务保守成因的研究,以及管理者个人特征与企业财务决策关系的研究,同时有助于投资者识别企业财务风险。     

Overlooked alternatives in managerial investment decisions: a reply

Some empirical evidence on the question of product differentiation in the market for audits is presented. Using agency cost and signalling frameworks we posit that there will be a demand for varying levels of audit quality. Because audit quality is not directly observable to investors we postulate that quality will be proxied by the auditor's brand name reputation. Big Eight auditors are categorized as being high quality producers. Using data on companies newly listing on the New Zealand Stock Exchange we test the derived models of auditor choice. Auditor choice is a dummy variable (0,1) partitioned on the basis of non Big Eight and Big Eight accounting firms. The results provide support for the idea of product differentiation in the market for audits.     

“从业权取缔”型审计监管的警示效应

市场危机通常会引发标志性的监管,所谓乱世用重典。文章关注于中国审计市场标志性的"从业权取缔"型监管事件,在为该事件构建了从"舞弊警示"到"基于财务风险的市场溢酬和审计费用敏感度提升"的分析框架后,文章的检验提供了关键性的经验证据:其一,较之普通公司,财务风险高的公司表现出明显的市场溢酬;其二,警示性的市场溢酬越高,后续的审计费用对财务风险的敏感度越强。综合结果表明,实现行业协会和外部监管部门对从业权的共治,并决定其是否取缔的模式,能够通过惩罚机会主义行为影响投资者的信念和从业者的执业格局,这为新兴审计市场监管的积极意义提供了证据。