审计费用的事前确定、异常审计费用与审计质量

实务中,我国部分上市公司年报审计费用采取事前确定方式,也就是在审计工作开展之前的董事会上确定。事前确定审计费用的动机何在,会产生什么样的审计后果?已有国内外文献尚缺乏这方面的研究。本文以2008~2017年全部A股上市公司为样本,通过实证考察审计费用事前确定方式对异常审计费用以及审计质量的影响发现:基于低价揽客或折价维持客户的经济动因,事前确定的审计费用显著偏低。进一步研究表明,在事前确定审计费用方式下,客户的审计质量更低。本文研究丰富和拓展了审计费用及审计质量决定因素的相关文献,同时也为监管机构规范审计费用确定方式提供了经验证据。     

审计费用信息隐藏与审计质量——基于审计独立性和投资者感知视角的研究

根据证监会的规定,上市公司应当在年度报告中披露支付给会计师事务所的报酬。然而,我国每年仍有一定数量的公司没有按照规定披露审计费用。为此,本文从审计独立性和投资者感知审计质量两个视角分析审计收费信息隐藏情境下的审计质量。研究发现:(1)如果上市公司不披露审计费用信息,那么会弱化可控应计与非标审计意见之间的正向关系,这意味着不披露审计费用可能会有损审计独立性;(2)不披露审计费用的公司所披露的超预期盈余的盈余反应系数较低,即投资者对这类公司的感知审计质量较低。     

审计费用与审计质量:基于分位数回归分析北大核心

本文利用2001-2013年中国上市公司的经验数据,采用分位数回归方法,使用可操控性应计绝对值表示审计质量,考察审计费用与审计质量之间的关系。研究发现:审计费用和审计质量之间不是一直存在显著性的关系,当审计质量处于较低的分位数水平时,审计费用和审计质量无显著关系,随着审计质量分位数水平的提高,即审计质量的降低,审计费用对审计质量的影响逐渐显著,而且该影响表现出"马太效应":随着审计质量分位数水平提高,审计费用对审计质量的回归系数值越来越大。考虑审计师规模后,与非十大事务所相比,十大事务所表现出的对审计质量的敏感性更强,对较低的可操控性应计容忍度更低,说明十大的审计质量更高,其政策含义是事务所做强做大有助于提高审计质量。     

关于我国上市公司审计费用影响因素的实证研究

审计费用是审计服务的价格,与审计质量有着密切的关系。本文通过对之前学者的研究和审计市场的分析,基于我国上市公司的现状,识别出了一些影响审计费用的因素,并选取了2007年至2010年上市公司数据对这些因素进行了实证研究,证实了被审计公司规模、审计意见、审计风险以及审计事务所对审计费用具有显著的影响效果,希望在企业的财务报告使用者和投资者分析企业财务状况和投资前景时,为他们提供有价值的信息。     

审计投入的产出效应北大核心CSSCI

本文运用我国上市公司数据,研究了审计投入的产出效应问题。研究发现,审计投入与审计质量和审计收费都存在正相关关系,表明审计投入的增加能够提高审计质量,也能够带来审计费用的提高。进一步研究发现,审计投入对审计质量的影响程度在不同会计师事务所之间不存在显著的差异,但审计投入增加所带来的审计收费的提升效应,在国际"四大"和国内"十大"会计师事务所比在国内小所更明显。同时,审计投入的产出效应在不同股权性质及不同规模的公司中也存在差异。本文首次为审计投入与产出的关系问题提供直接的证据,同时也表明已有文献将审计费用作为审计投入的替代变量可能不是一个合适的方法(Gong等,2016)。本文的研究结论对于审计市场效率提升具有重要的启示作用。     

审计费用与审计质量关系的文献综述与展望

1987年AICPA下属的COHEN委员会发现,不合格的审计最重要原因是低额的审计费用所导致的时间压力,从而揭示了审计费用与审计质量的相互关系.近年来,审计领域发展日益成熟,国内外学者通过实证研究方法对已有审计领域进行研究,对二者的关系进行了大量充分的论证.文章对国内外的实证审计研究状况进行了综述,并对研究趋势进行展望,以期为未来的研究提供参考     

金融危机下审计收费风险溢价的研究

基于2008年金融危机这一外生冲击,本文考察了公司风险与审计收费间的关系。研究发现,当危机下公司的经营风险提高时,会计师事务所的审计收费增加,表明公司审计费用存在风险溢价。针对不同行业的分析显示,对于出口型企业,因受危机的影响严重,公司审计收费与经营风险显著正相关;基于不同性质公司的研究表明,由于政府的隐形担保,危机下国有公司的审计费用并未随经营风险的增加而提高;最后,金融危机下审计收费风险溢价现象主要存在于非"四大"审计的公司。     

我国审计市场集中度与审计质量关系的实证分析

本文对我国审计市场集中度和审计质量的关系进行了实证研究。文章运用了回归分析的方法 ,结果表明我国审计市场集中度与审计质量之间呈现倒U型的函数关系 ,因而我们认为我国有必要构造“寡占型”的上市公司审计市场结构来提高审计质量和会计师事务所的国际竞争力     

创建第三方审计费用支付平台——消除审计费用支付对审计独立性的影响

审计独立性是注册会计师执行审计业务的灵魂。本文针对目前我国审计费用支付方式存在的问题进行分析,阐述其对审计独立性的影响,并提出创建"第三方审计费用支付平台",改变当前审计费用支付方式,切断被审计单位与会计师事务所存在的直接经济利益关系,增强注册会计师的审计独立性,提高审计业务质量。     

“四大”及双重审计对审计质量的影响

大所的审计质量是否高于小所一直是理论分析和实证研究的焦点。西方的经济制度和市场条件造就了国际四大高品牌事务所,他们在西方审计市场已是高审计质量的代名词,在价格和市场份额等方面具有绝对的竞争优势。但是,基于我国独特的市场法律环境,四大事务所究竟是否就代表了高审计质量?境内与境外双重审计是否能够增加审计质量?本文采用实证研究的方法对这二个问题进行检验,回归结果表明:基于中国独特的市场法律环境,"四大"没有采取一贯的审计质量策略。     

On the Relationship between Audit Tenure and Fees Paid to the Audit Firm and Audit Quality

Abstract

We investigate the impact of audit firm tenure, partner tenure, audit fees, fees for non-audit services and total fees on audit quality, as measured by discretionary accruals. Our sample consists of Spanish non-financial public companies for the years between 2006 and 2013. Results indicate that audit quality increases with audit firm tenure but decreases with partner tenure. Moreover, the level of fees paid to the audit firm seems to have a negative impact on audit quality, which is mainly driven by fees for audit services. In this regard, we do not observe any significant relationship between fees for non-audit services and audit quality. Our results also show that the negative relationship between either long partner tenures or high fees and audit quality does not occur when the tenure with the audit firm is long. Therefore, long audit firm tenures do not only seem to involve higher audit quality ‘per se’, but also moderate the negative effects of partner tenure and audit fees on audit quality. The results of this study, which are robust to several sensitivity checks, may be relevant for the current debate on auditor rotation and the joint provision of audit and non-audit services.     

Audit Pricing of Shared Leadership

This study explores audit implications of shared leadership in client firms. Analyzing data from 2002 to 2013 of Korean listed companies, we find that auditors spend fewer audit hours and charge lower audit fees for clients with multiple CEOs. Additional tests reveal that the lower audit fees for co-CEO clients are likely attributable to reduced audit effort rather than to reduced hourly rates. We also document that firms with co-CEOs exhibit better-reporting quality than do firms with a solitary CEO. In sum, this article presents evidence that mutual monitoring via co-CEO appointments assures high-quality financial reporting of audit clients, and thus leads to reduced audit fees.     

非审计业务对审计市场绩效的影响——基于会计师事务所业务结构的角度

以审计质量和审计收费作为审计市场绩效的衡量指标,从会计师事务所业务结构角度来考察我国注册会计师行业拓展非审计业务对审计市场所带来的影响。实证检验发现,相对于其他事务所而言,非审计业务规模越大和当年非审计业务规模较上年扩大的事务所,其审计质量越好,审计收费也越高。这说明在目前审计服务市场容量有限,竞争过于激烈的环境下,拓展非审计业务有利于增强审计独立性和提高审计收费,是改善行业执业环境的一个重要途径。     

Audit Quality and the Market Valuation of Banks’ Allowance for Loan Losses*

The recent banking crisis has led market participants to focus on the adequacy and quality of banks’ balance sheet items such as the allowance for loan losses. Beaver and Engel (1996) document that the capital market prices the nondiscretionary component of loan loss allowance negatively and the discretionary component less negatively. Using data from the pre‐crisis period and three measures of audit quality, auditor type (i.e., Big 5 versus non–Big 5), auditor industry specialization/expertise, and audit and nonaudit fees paid to auditors, we examine the effect of audit quality on the market valuation of the discretionary component of the allowance for loan losses. We find that, relative to the nondiscretionary component, the market valuation of the discretionary component of loan loss allowance is higher for banks audited by Big 5 auditors than for banks audited by non–Big 5 auditors. We also find that the relative market valuation of the discretionary component of loan loss allowance is increasing in auditor expertise. Regarding the impact of fees paid to auditors, we find that banks paying higher audit fees have higher relative market valuation of the discretionary component of the allowance for loan losses, but banks that pay higher nonaudit fees do not.     

Joint Audits: Does the Allocation of Audit Work Affect Audit Quality and Audit Fees?

Audit quality and cost consequences of joint audits have been continually discussed, especially since the publication of the European Commission’s Green Paper in 2010. We provide new empirical evidence for the French audit market. We show that a more balanced audit work allocation between the engaged audit firms reduces the audit quality and enhances the audit fees as compared to an unbalanced work allocation. We measure the quality effects following the concept of abnormal accruals and the concept of cosmetic earnings management. As unbalanced joint audits have parallels to single audits, our results have interest to those debating the benefits and costs of joint audits as compared to single audits.     

Audit Market Structure and Competition in Australia

The purpose of this review is to synthesise the existing research literature regarding the underlying structure and competitiveness of the Australian audit market. We consider the findings of Australian academic research, which has examined audit fees, non‐audit fees, market concentration, auditor choice, auditor switching and audit firm mergers. We identify the key metrics used to evaluate market structure in the academic literature and then document changes in these metrics in the Australian audit market for listed company audits during the period 2000–2011. Our analysis shows that the audit market is both highly segmented and supplier‐concentrated. We find that audit fees in Australia have increased over this period, which can be attributed to increased regulation and resulting increased audit effort needed to complete audit engagements in times of regulatory change and more recently, the global financial crisis. We provide regulators, standard setters and the profession with an evidenced‐based perspective on the market for the listed company audits, which is an important input into any future proposals to regulate the Australian audit market.     

Audit market concentration,audit fees,and audit quality: A cross-country analysis of complex audit clients

Regulators around the world are concerned about the potentially harmful effects of high audit market concentration on audit pricing and quality. However, results in the overall literature have failed to reach consensus on this issue. We contribute to this debate by arguing that the audit market is segmented and that concentration in the Big 4 segment of the market leads to higher audit pricing. Accordingly, our analyses use international data and focus on concentration within the Big 4 group of firms across countries. We find that audit fees are increasing in our concentration measure for clients where the barriers to entry by competing auditors are higher, as proxied by client size, international operations, and IFRS use. Finally, we find evidence that audit quality is decreasing in Big 4 market concentration for these types of engagements. This indicates a wealth transfer from shareholders to audit firms when auditor concentration is high because these complex clients are charged more, but receive audits that are of lower quality.     

Responsiveness of Auditors to the Audit Risk Standards: Unique Evidence from Big 4 Audit Firms

We examine the effect of changes in audit risk standards on the conduct of financial statement audits in a European setting. We investigate this by analysing the audit hours and audit fees for clients of Big 4 audit firms in Finland in 1996 and 2010. Our results show that audit firms became more sensitive to clients’ business risk due to the introduction of the new audit risk standards, with more audit hours allocated to owner-managed companies in 2010 than in 1996, and fewer audit hours allocated to low-risk clients in 2010 than in 1996. Also, the labour mix in the audit team changed for owner-managed companies, with a greater work load carried by junior auditors in 2010 than in 1996. Regarding the price of audit, we find an increase in audit fees for clients with high business risk, while audit fees remained at roughly the same level for low-risk clients. These findings should be of interest to the auditing profession and those involved in the development of auditing regulations.     

Audit Firm Tenure,Non‐Audit Services,and Internal Assessments of Audit Quality

We use data from internal assessments of audit quality in a Big 4 firm to investigate the impact of audit firm tenure and auditor‐provided non‐audit services (NAS) on audit quality. We find that first‐year audits receive lower assessments of audit quality and that quality improves shortly thereafter and then declines as tenure becomes very long. Partitioning our sample between SEC registrants and private clients, we find that the decline in audit quality in the long tenure range is attributable to audits of private clients. For audits of SEC registrants, the probability of a high quality audit reaches its maximum with very long tenure. We also find that audit fees are discounted for first‐year audits but auditor effort is higher than in subsequent years. We find no association, on average, between total NAS fees and audit quality in the full sample but observe that total NAS fees are positively associated with quality for SEC registrants and negatively associated with quality for privately held clients. Our findings are important for regulatory policies related to audit firm tenure and auditor‐provided NAS.