浅析所有权结构、资本结构与代理成本的关系

本文分析了企业的所有权结构、资本结构与代理成本之间的关系,得出的结论是在我国控股大股东持股与代理成本之间是“倒U”型关系,管理者持股与代理成本之间是“U”型关系,非控股大股东持股与代理成本之间是负相关关系;银行负债降低代理成本的作用不明显,而短期负债能在一定程度上降低代理成本。     

所有权结构、公司治理与外部审计监督——来自中国上市公司的经验证据

本文选取所有权结构作为公司代理成本的衡量指标,以我国A股上市公司2002-2004年的相关数据为基础,从审计需求和审计供给两个方面对所有权结构与外部审计之间的关系进行了实证分析。实证结果表明,从审计的需求方来说,当第一大股东壕沟防御效应越强时越愿意聘请高质量的外部审计来缓解公司的代理冲突,减少代理成本;从审计的供给方来说,审计师在出具审计意见时较少考虑到上市公司所存在的代理问题,即当上市公司存在严重的代理问题时获得标准审计意见的可能性很大。但相对非四大来说,四大审计事务所在审计时能在一定程度上考虑到上市公司所存在的代理问题。因此,本文认为目前在我国的证券市场上,上市公司是愿意聘请高质量的审计师作为一种有效的公司治理机制的,但整个审计市场质量还不高,还不能充分发挥其应有的监督作用。     

中国上市公司外部审计的选择及其治理效应

本文从最终控制人的角度,根据2001—2004年的中国A股市场数据,研究了外部审计选择与中国上市公司内部代理成本的关系。结果表明,控股股东的股权结构产生的代理成本越严重,上市公司越有可能选择审计质量较高的“四大”,这种关系受到地区市场化水平、“四大”所在位置以及再融资需求的影响,即在市场化水平较高的地区、“四大”所在的地区以及上市公司有再融资需求时,上市公司的代理成本和选择“四大”的关系得到进一步加强。同时,通过二阶段回归,我们发现选择“四大”能提高公司绩效以及降低控股股东对上市公司的资金占用。     

代理成本、弹性信息披露对审计收费的影响

本文研究了大股东与中小股东间的代理成本及弹性信息披露对审计收费的影响。我们发现上市公司不存在两权分离的情况下,大股东持股比例较低时,大股东持股比例与审计收费负相关;大股东持股比例较高时,大股东持股比例与审计收费正相关;两权分离程度较低的情况下,大股东持股比例较低时,大股东持股比例与审计收费负相关;两权分离程度较高的情况下,大股东持股比例较高时,大股东持股比例与审计收费负相关。上市公司弹性信息披露程度越高,审计收费越低;两权分离的存在会削弱弹性信息披露程度与审计收费之间的负相关关系。     

大股东制衡机制对审计意见的影响——来自深市509家上市公司的经验数据

本文选取深市509家上市公司2004年度的相关数据为研究样本。从公司治理角度分析前三大股东的持股比例以及他们之间的股权制衡对上市公司审计意见的影响。运用Logistic回归模型分析得出：第一大股东持股比例与上市公司年报被出具非标准审计意见的可能性负相关，并且两者存在正“U”形关系。第二、第三大股东对第一大股东的监督制衡能力较弱，并没有充分利用外部审计约束的作用来保护其他股东的权益。     

大股东制衡机制对审计约束有效性的影响

在内部治理机制亟待完善、外部审计约束乏力的情况下,集中持股、具有绝对信息优势的第一大股东(基本为非流通股)不仅有动机也有能力粉饰甚至虚构财务报表,掩盖实际存在的问题,避开外部审计约束；而此时,其他大股东很有可能不选择通过内部治理机制实施对第一大股东的制衡,而是更多地求助于外部治理机制,利用自身的信息优势与外部审计者合作,降低信息不对称性,配合注册会计师审计、发现控股股东的财务粉饰和造假行为,提高外部审计约束的有效性。此外,持股比例和制衡能力的消长以及对成本和收益的权衡。使得大股东持股比例、大股东制衡度和上市公司年报被出具非标准审计意见的可能性之间表现为正“U”形关系。     

大股东持股、并购商誉与股价涨跌风险北大核心CSSCI

本文基于大股东持股的视角,以2007年至2017年中国A股上市公司为样本,分析大股东持股对并购商誉与股价下跌风险关系的影响。研究发现:(1)公司的并购商誉规模越大,未来的股价下跌风险越大;(2)公司第一大股东持股比例的增加降低了并购商誉对股价下跌风险的正向影响;(3)大股东持股对并购商誉与股价下跌风险关系的影响在代理冲突严重、外部审计质量较低、公司成长性较高和企业业绩下滑时更加显著。     

最终控制人性质、审计行业专业性与控股股东代理成本——来自我国上市公司的经验证据

本文以我国2001—2008年上市公司为研究对象,对审计行业专业性与控股股东代理成本的相关关系进行了探讨。研究发现:审计行业专业性具有降低控股股东代理成本的作用;考虑最终控制人性质因素后,在非政府控制的上市公司中,审计行业专业性降低控股股东代理成本的作用更为明显;结合考虑两权分离度因素的影响,在非政府控制的上市公司中,审计行业专业性对控股股东代理成本的约束作用随着两权分离度的提高而增强,但在政府控制的上市公司,两权分离度、审计行业专业性与控股股东代理成本相关性并不明显。     

我国上市公司高管薪酬与外部审计关系的论述

委托代理问题产生于现代企业所有权和管理权的分离中。为了减轻代理成本,现代企业管理逐渐引入了管理层激励。为了缓解企业代理冲突问题,我们可以把高质量审计作为公司外部监督和担保机制。管理层激励和高质量审计是现代企业两个重要的公司治理机制,它们在缓解代理冲突方面有着类似的作用,但是专门研究他们关系的文章却不多。为了完善我国上市公司高管激励机制,发挥证券市场审计的作用,本文从高管激励如何影响外部审计需求进行了研宄。     

代理冲突与公司的内部控制审计需求

本文以沪市A股2007—2009年自愿披露内部控制审计报告的上市公司为样本,从委托代理理论出发,探讨公司产生内部控制审计需求的动因。研究结果表明,管理层持股比例越低,对内部控制审计的需求越高;第一大股东为绝对控股股东、公司规模、净资产收益率、国有股权性质与内部控制审计需求正相关。随着第二到第十大股东持股比例的增加,内部控制审计需求出现先上升后下降的趋势,支持了内部控制审计需求的代理假说。     

Employee stock ownership and the cost of capital

This paper investigates the relationship between employee stock ownership and the cost of capital, the main determinant of shareholder value creation computed through economic value added (EVA). By reducing agency conflicts within the firm, we hypothesize that employee share ownership reduces the firm’s cost of capital by affecting its two components, i.e. the cost of equity and the cost of debt. We test this hypothesis in France, a leading country in terms of employee ownership, based on a panel of the 120 largest listed companies for the 2000–2011 period. We find: (i) no significant relationship between employee stock ownership and the cost of equity; (ii) a negative curvilinear relationship between employee stock ownership and the cost of debt; (ii) a negative curvilinear relationship between employee stock ownership and the weighted average cost of capital. These results suggest debtholders regard ESO as positive as long it is moderate because it shifts risk from them to employees and that this effect is still perceptible in the weighted average cost of capital.     

Determinants and consequences of voluntary disclosure in an emerging market: Evidence from China

In this paper we examine empirically the determinants of voluntary disclosure in the annual reports of Chinese listed firms that issue both domestic and foreign shares and determine if the cost of debt capital is related to the extent of voluntary disclosure. We find the level of voluntary disclosure is positively related to the proportion of state ownership, foreign ownership, firm performance measured by return on equity, and reputation of the engaged auditor. There is no evidence, however, that companies benefit from extensive voluntary disclosure by having a lower cost of debt capital.     

Agency conflicts and auditing in private firms

We are interested in understanding how agency conflicts in private firms arise through ownership structures and family relationships. Specifically, we analyze auditors’ increase of effort and firms’ choice of auditors in situations with higher level of agency conflicts. For a large sample of private firms, we use unique and confidential data (obtained through special permission by the government) to measure direct and ultimate ownership for each shareholder as well as extended family relationships (based on marriage and blood lines, going back four generations and extending out to fourth cousin) among all shareholders, board members, and CEOs. We first find that audit fees, our proxy for audit effort, vary as hypothesized with firm-level characteristics related to ownership structures and family relationships. Second, we find evidence that firms in higher agency cost settings respond by having their financial statements audited by a higher-quality auditor (i.e., a Big 4 firm). However, for CEO family-related settings (i.e., where the CEO is related to the major shareholder or as the number of board members related to the CEO increases), we find no evidence of a greater demand for a Big 4 auditor.     

Multiple corporate governance attributes and the cost of capital – Evidence from Germany

This paper investigates the extent to which corporate governance affects the cost of debt and equity capital of German exchange-listed companies. I examine corporate governance along three dimensions: financial information quality, ownership structure and board structure. The results suggest that firms with high levels of financial transparency and bonus compensations face lower cost of equity. In addition, block ownership is negatively related to firms' cost of equity when the blockholders are other firms, managers or founding-family members. Consistent with the conjecture that agency costs increase with firm size, I find significant cost of debt effects only in the largest German companies. Here, the creditors demand lower cost of debt from firms with block ownerships held by corporations or banks. My findings demonstrate that a uniform set of governance attributes is unlikely to satisfy suppliers of debt and equity capital equally.     

Government and managerial influence on auditor switching under partial privatization

We investigate how auditor switching is affected by government influence, misalignment between type of auditor (government vs. private) and type of controlling shareholder (government vs. private), and misalignment between an incumbent auditor and imputed preferences of managers in a market characterized by continued substantial government ownership in listed entities. We exploit a natural policy and regulatory experiment in Iran that allows us to investigate what happens when previously government-owned entities are partially privatized as listed entities where, in many cases, the government retains significant ownership interests. At the same time, there were significant changes in the audit market, resulting in large increases in the number of private sector auditors competing for previously state-administered audits. We find the likelihood of auditor switches is strongly associated with measures of misalignment between type of auditor and type of controlling shareholder and auditor–managerial misalignment, but these associations are constrained by significant government influence. Exposing the constraining effect of significant government influence on auditor switching is an important contribution to our understanding of privatizations, government shareholder influence and auditor choice. These results have implications for policy development in other emerging and transition economies where privatization remains largely partial, and competition among private sector auditors is still emergent.     

论高质量审计与提升负债的治理效应——基于代理成本与代理效率视角的经验检验

以2007～2010年我国A股上市公司为样本,分别从代理成本和代理效率的视角考察了高质量审计是否有助于提升负债的治理功效。研究发现:高质量审计与短期借款之间存在协同治理效应,该效应有助于提升代理效率但无助于降低代理成本;进一步地,高质量审计与短期借款之间的协同治理效应仅显著存在于金融发展水平高地区的上市公司中。此外,附加检验的结果显示,高质量审计有助于透过改进代理效率提升商业信用的治理功效且这一效应只在法治化程度较高地区的上市公司中存在。上述研究结论揭示了我国当前制度环境下高质量审计提升债务治理功效的路径及影响因素。     

金融生态环境、审计意见与债务融资成本

本文旨在研究金融生态环境、审计意见对于上市公司债务融资成本的影响。以2006—2009年1555家中国A股上市公司为样本,实证发现,良好的金融生态环境有助于上市公司获得较低成本的债务融资,民营上市公司承担了比国有上市公司显著更高的债务融资成本,而金融生态环境的改善有助于降低这种信贷融资成本差异。同时,被出具非标审计意见的上市公司相比获得标准审计意见的上市公司具有显著更高的债务融资成本,并且无论是对国有企业抑或民营企业来说,良好的金融生态环境都有助于增强审计意见的风险揭示功能。研究结果表明,在我国良好的金融生态环境以及外部审计监督有助于增强债务融资的市场化定价,提高信贷资源的配置效率。     

Ownership,two-tier board structure,and the informativeness of earnings – Evidence from China

This study extends previous research by empirically examining how ownership, two-tier board structure, and auditor affect the informativeness of earnings for companies listed in China. We measure the informativeness of earnings by the earnings–returns relation, discretionary accruals, and audit opinion. The results show that ownership concentration, the presence of foreign shareholders, the percentage of tradable shares, the type of dominant shareholder, the supervisory board, and independent directors affect the earnings response coefficients and discretionary accruals. We also find that the type of dominant shareholder, the size of the supervisory board, and the percentage of independent directors have an impact on the frequency of modified audit opinions. Our research has implications for China’s regulators who are striving to improve accounting information, transparency, and corporate governance.     

股权控制链、代理冲突与审计师选择

本文利用2002—2003年我国A股市场数据,从上市公司至其最终控制人之间的股权控制链①的视角,考察了上市公司控制性股东与中小股东之间的代理冲突,并在此基础上研究了其与高质量外部审计需求之间的关系。结果表明,控制链越长,控制性股东与中小股东之间的代理冲突就越严重。研究发现,控制性股东的控制权结构所产生的代理冲突越严重,上市公司越有可能聘请审计质量较高的"四大"审计;而聘请"四大",能够降低控制性股东的资金侵占程度,减缓公司的代理冲突。这说明在我国现阶段,高质量外部审计具有一定的治理作用。     

机构投资者独立性对代理成本的影响

本文以2006~2009年沪深两市A股上市公司为样本,在根据投资目标对机构投资者进行类型划分的基础上,探讨了机构投资者独立性对代理成本的影响。研究发现,独立机构持股比例越高,公司管理层代理成本和控股股东代理成本越低,而非独立机构持股对两类代理成本影响有限。在进一步考虑了控股股东持股比例的影响后,发现独立机构持股在控股股东偏好控制权私有收益的情况下更能降低管理层代理成本,表明在此情况下,独立机构对管理层自利行为有更大的监督作用。