会计师事务所客户选择与审计风险

注册会计师是否能够应对日益增加的审计诉讼风险,不但取决于其执业过程中能否保持应有的执业谨慎态度,还在一定程度上取决于客户面临的风险水平。本文在对我国会计师事务所客户选择的现状进行简要分析的基础上研究客户选择与会计师事务所审计风险之间的关系,并提出相关建议以降低审计风险。     

审计收费信息强制披露与审计环境的改善——来自中国审计市场的证据

2001年开始实施的审计收费信息强制披露规定，是改善了我国审计环境还是恶化了审计环境？本文采用三种相互补充的研究设计具体考察2001年开始实施的审计收费信息强制披露政策对我国审计环境的影响，结果发现强制披露规定颁布日国内会计师事务所主审的上市公司的累计异常回报高于中外合作会计师事务所主审的上市公司，进一步研究发现，在审计收费信息首次披露后年度（2002-2003），国内会计师事务所的审计收费与中外合作会计师事务所的审计收费的差异显著缩小、审计质量显著提高。而且上述发现在国内小会计师事务所表现更为明显。这基本上支持审计环境改善的假说。     

会计师事务所合并对审计收费的影响研究

本文以2006年至2008年间我国证券审计市场中会计师事务所合并案例为研究样本,对审计收费与事务所合并行为及其带来的事务所规模扩大之间的关系进行回归分析,考察了会计师事务所合并对其审计收费的影响.研究发现,在控制了客户的规模、客户报表的复杂程度、客户的风险、审计意见类型等因素之后,事务所之间的合并行为和由此带来的事务所规模的扩大与审计收费之间存在显著的正向相关关系,这也从一个侧面提供了有关事务所合并的经济后果的经验证据.     

会计师事务所转制对审计收费的影响

2010年,国家出台政策要求会计师事务所进行由有限责任制向特殊普通合伙制的转变。特殊普通合伙制会使会计师事务所面临更高的法律风险和诉讼风险。那么,会计师事务所是否会因此向客户收取更高的审计费用?本文采用沪深两市上市公司2009年到2012年数据,采用实证方法来检验会计师事务所转制对审计收费的影响。     

上市公司法律风险与审计收费——来自中国上市公司的经验证据北大核心

本文实证检验了法律风险对审计收费的影响。结果发现:上市公司的法律风险和审计收费显著正相关。进一步研究表明,国内会计师事务所审计的上市公司,法律风险和审计收费显著正相关,而由"四大"会计师事务所审计的上市公司,法律风险和审计收费相关性不显著。这可以用审计质量溢价来解释,比起国内会计师事务所,"四大"会计师事务所存在明显的审计质量溢价,在审计定价时,法律风险不是主要影响因素。     

企业集团统一审计能降低审计收费吗

审计收费是审计研究的重要问题。已有审计研究文献通常关注的是对单个公司的审计收费,本文则关注在同一实际控制人控制下的企业集团中,多家上市公司选择同一家会计师事务所审计,即集团统一审计对审计收费的影响。研究发现,集团统一审计不但不能降低审计收费,反而会增加审计收费;选择大所进行统一审计可以降低审计费用,而小所执行统一审计则可能存在牺牲独立性以获得更多审计收费的情形。此外,事务所尤其是小规模事务所,在招揽集团客户时存在激烈的低价竞争。     

浅析当前我国审计收费现状

利用中小事务所客户市场竞争力差的缺点,通过变更会计师事务所同时利用审计契约的折扣行为,不诚信的被审计单位既获得了想要的审计意见,又压低了审计收费。作为自负盈亏的市场实体,不规范的委托模式为会计师事务所带来的是高额的审计成本,不但直接降低了注册会计师的执业质量,也在很大程度上造成审计市场的不正当竞争,进而影响了审计收费。     

会计师事务所合并与审计收费

以中国2005年以来发生的14起会计师事务所合并案为例,通过大样本的经验研究方法探讨了会计师事务所的合并对审计收费的影响。研究发现,总体来看,会计师事务所合并后审计收费有显著提高;但分组研究发现,只在小客户市场上,会计师事务所合并后审计收费有了显著的提高。进一步的研究发现,在大客户市场上,之所以事务所合并对审计收费的影响无显著的影响,是因为会计师事务所在合并后尽管议价能力有了较大的提升,但同时规模效率也得到了充分的发挥。     

分所审计是否影响审计质量和审计收费?

随着注册会计师行业的扩大和分所的不断增加,分所的执业行为值得关注。我们采用2005—2008年会计师事务所分所数据,考察了会计师事务所总所和分所在审计质量和审计收费上的差异,以及分所规模大小对审计质量和审计收费的影响。结论总体上表明,会计师事务所分所的审计质量和审计收费更低,并且,规模越小的分所,其审计质量和审计收费越低。在此基础上,我们根据样本是否由十大会计师事务所审计,进行了分组检验,结果显示分所审计质量和审计收费更低主要体现在非十大会计师事务所上。     

审计市场供需不平衡、事务所选聘与审计收费

从审计市场供需双维视角,基于2007-2013年沪深两市A股上市公司样本,观察我国省级层面审计市场供需不平衡1对事务所选聘及审计收费的影响。结果表明,当省级审计市场存在供需不平衡时,会计师事务所供给每增加1个标准单位,客户选聘当地事务所的可能性增加1.4%,其中国际"四大"、本土"六大"及其他小所供给每增加1个标准单位,客户选聘当地事务所的可能性增加1.6%、1.2%和2.7%,审计费用将分别增加近2%、降低1.5%和9.9%。论文首次从我国省级层面较好地解释了审计市场供求关系变化对事务所选聘及审计收费的影响,丰富了审计相关理论,也为会计师事务所在不同省域开展业务、监管者评估不同地域间审计市场发展状况提供新的依据。     

Accounting conservatism and common ownership by dedicated institutional blockholders

We examine the peer effects of accounting conservatism in a common dedicated institutional blockholder (CDIB) setting. We find a positive correlation in accounting conservatism between focal firms and their CDIB peers. To corroborate our main findings, we document that the peer effect is stronger for firms connected through CDIBs that are activists or that have more active shares, for firms with larger CDIB ownership and for firms with weaker corporate governance mechanisms and higher information asymmetry. The results suggest that managers view following peer firms’ conservatism as a way of pleasing CDIBs. We also find that in proxy voting, firms receive less support from their investors when their conservatism deviates more from their CDIB peers. Finally, we find that the CDIB peer effect remains significant after controlling for the effect of industry and local peers. Overall, our paper presents evidence consistent with firms adapting their accounting conservatism in response to their incumbent dedicated institutional investors’ preference.     

Conservatism,SEC investigation,and fraud

We present evidence on the relationship between firms that have engaged in fraudulent financial reporting and accounting conservatism. We empirically investigate the extent to which US firms identified by the SEC in their Enforcement Releases demonstrate higher levels of conditional conservatism in order to mitigate information asymmetry and agency problems. Specifically, by assessing the timing of changes in the litigation risk environment for fraud firms, we document how differences in heightened legal liability guide changes in conservative accounting behavior. Compared to a matched non-fraud control sample, we document that fraud firms have significantly lower levels of accounting conservatism in the pre-fraud period. Consistent with changes in potential legal liability, we find an increase in accounting conservatism for fraud firms during the SEC investigation period. Subsequently, during the public discovery of fraud, any increases in accounting conservatism are marginal and appear to converge back to lower levels compared to the SEC investigation period. Overall, our findings suggest more temporary changes in conservative reporting in the short-term for fraud firms. We also document that increased levels of accounting conservatism for fraud firms are not due solely to the passage of the SOX Act. Our findings aid in explaining fraud firms’ incentives and opportunities for accounting conservatism and lend support for why standard setters, regulators and auditors should continue to monitor and re-evaluate conservatism’s short-term effects that are conditioned on changes in a firm’s risk environment.     

Effects of air pollution on accounting conservatism

We examine the impact of air pollution on a firm's accounting policy conservatism. We hypothesize that, in response to risks associated with increased air pollution, firms apply more conservative accounting practices and utilize more conservative estimates in their reporting. Using a sample of Chinese firms, accounting conservatism measures, and a satellite-based air pollution metric, we confirm the validity of our hypothesis. Additional analysis suggests that the impact of air pollution on accounting policy conservatism is more salient for firms in high-pollution industries, firms under severe financial constraint, firms with higher environmental risk, and firms that receive high media coverage. Further, we document that air pollution does not significantly affect a firm's return on assets, year-on-year sales growth, or Tobin's Q measure. Hence, it is management's risk perception, not objective performance concern, that is driving accounting conservatism. Finally, specifically investigating accounting conservatism, we discover that, for firms with higher pollution levels, selling general and administrative expenses, liabilities provision, accrued expenses, and asset impairment loss are significantly higher.     

The role of accounting conservatism in M&A target selection

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are among the most important investment activities for companies, but they contain great risks. We investigate the role of accounting conservatism in M&A target selection and risk. We find that for risk-averse reasons, firms with high accounting conservatism are likely to acquire profitable targets and avoid loss-making targets. When such firms acquire loss-making targets, the conservatism’s risk-control role reduces M&A risk and increases M&A performance, but only when control of the target is transferred and the acquirer has high long-term debt and low management power. Furthermore, accounting conservatism reduces risk by increasing the maturity match between cash flow and debt. Our results suggest that accounting conservatism plays not only a risk-averse role but also a risk-control role, providing new evidence for the usefulness of accounting conservatism in M&A decisions.     

The Uses of Advanced Information Technology in Audit Planning

Expert systems, intelligent databases and other forms of advanced information technology are quickly becoming pervasive tools in accounting and auditing. All the major public accounting firms are either using such systems in their auditing practice or have them under development. This paper describes the use of several systems used for audit planning. These are divided into three functional areas: audit risk assessment, internal control evaluation and audit program development. The advantages and disadvantages of these systems as they relate to auditing are discussed.     

The effect of government industrial policies on corporate accounting conservatism

This study examines whether and how firms adjust their accounting conservatism in response to government support through industrial policies, which reduce firms’ dependence on external financing from the capital market. Based on China’s unique economic programme called ‘Five-Year Plan’ from 1991 to 2015, we observe a decline in accounting conservatism among firms covered by government industrial policies. The decline is more pronounced in covered firms, which face higher ex-ante financial constraints, and in the subsample of firms which receive higher government support. These findings are robust to alternative specifications of accounting conservatism and policy timing. Our evidence implies that government industrial policies can have unintended consequences for corporate financial reporting.     

The role of accounting conservatism in management forecast bias

We investigate whether management earnings forecasts fully incorporate information in historical accounting conservatism. We find that management earnings forecasts are more optimistic for firms with greater accounting conservatism in the previous year. We further examine whether this conservatism-related optimistic bias in management earnings forecasts varies with managers’ difficulty predicting earnings accurately, managers’ opportunistic incentives, and the firms’ litigation risk. We find that the negative association between management forecast errors and conservatism increases, to various extent, with the firms’ operating cycles, earnings volatility, and the width of forecast range but does not change with proxies for opportunistic incentives or litigation risk. These results suggest that forecast difficulty is the primary reason for managers’ failure to incorporate conservatism fully in their earnings forecasts.     

Accounting conservatism and voluntary corporate governance mechanisms by Australian firms

This study examines the relationship between voluntary adoption of selected corporate governance mechanisms and accounting conservatism for a sample of firms listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) over the 11‐year period prior to the promulgation of the ASX Corporate Governance Council Good Governance Principles and Best Practice Recommendations in 2003. Using four accounting and market‐based accounting conservatism measures, our results provide evidence of both conditional and unconditional conservatism in accounting reporting for Australian firms. We find that voluntary audit committee formation, increasing board independence and decreasing board size are positively associated with unconditional accounting conservatism and negatively related to the degree of conditional conservatism. Our results support the contention that firms voluntarily adopting perceived best practice corporate governance mechanisms employ unconditional accounting conservatism as a complimentary agency control device and are consistent with the observed negative association between the unconditional and conditional forms of accounting conservatism practice.     

Auditing standards,increased accounting disclosure,and information asymmetry: Evidence from an emerging market

The interest in accounting disclosure and audit quality by academics, practitioners, and regulators heightened following the various financial reporting scandals, and subsequent legislative and professional response to these scandals. An important question is whether the implementation of stricter auditing standards such as those mandated by the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act would improve the information environment of firms whose shares are publicly traded. In this paper, I investigate the link between information asymmetry, measured by bid-ask spread, and increased accounting disclosures following the adoption of new auditing standards in China—an environment in which disclosure hitherto was relatively low. I report the following primary results of the statistical analyses. First, information asymmetry cost is substantial in the Chinese order-driven emerging markets. Second, the firms in the sample experienced significant reductions in their bid-ask spreads subsequent to the adoption of the new auditing standards. Third, the reductions in the bid-ask spreads were abrupt and permanent. However, no significant result is found for firms in the control group with foreign ownership, whose financial statements were prepared in accordance with international accounting standards and were audited with international auditing standards. The results have implications for policy makers and regulators in general, and those in emerging markets in particular.     

The effect of differential accounting conservatism on the “over-valuation” of high-tech firms relative to low-tech firms

This paper examines systematic differences in the level of accounting conservatism between high-tech and low-tech firms. Relying on the recent development in theoretical models and empirical measures of conservatism, we investigate conservative accounting practices and earnings management behavior in high-tech and low-tech firms. The results based on comparisons of cumulative nonoperating accruals, regression coefficients from the income timeliness models in Basu (1997), the distribution of earnings, and discretionary accruals between the two groups are consistent with a higher level of accounting conservatism in high-tech firms vis-à-vis low-tech firms. Additional analyses show that the effect of conservatism cannot be used as a defense for the over-valuation of high-tech firms.