披露内部控制自我评价与鉴证报告会降低资本成本吗?——来自中国A股上市公司的经验证据

管理层对内部控制的自我评价能够释放企业内部控制有效性的信息,有助于企业外部利益相关者的决策;而由审计师出具的内控鉴证报告则是对管理层所披露的内控信息公允性的鉴证。本文以2007至2010年期间沪深主板上市的A股公司年度报告或独立公告中披露的内部控制自我评价和鉴证报告为对象,研究其披露是否会降低企业资本成本。研究表明,在控制其他因素的情况下,披露内控自我评价报告的公司资本成本相对较低,且进一步披露内控鉴证报告的公司资本成本更低。这一结论对于国有和非国有控股公司同样成立。本文的结论对政策制定者进一步推进内控披露制度具有一定参考价值,同时为公司管理层的内控披露决策提供支持依据。

Management’s and Auditors’ Report on Internal Control and Cost of Capital——Evidence from China A-share firms

Management’s self-assessment of internal control releases important information about the efficiency of internal control.Its fairness is identified by the auditor’s internal control attestation report.These reports provide useful information for external stakeholders’ investment decisions.This paper examines whether the disclosure of internal control self-assessment report and the auditor’s attestation report decrease firms’ cost of capital.Based on a hand-collected database of Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed firms during 2007-2010,we find that,after controlling for other factors,cost of capital for companies disclosing internal control self-assessment report is lower than that of companies not disclosing.Furthermore,the attestation report disclosing group has the lowest cost of capital.Such a conclusion is robust both for the state-owned or non state-owned holding companies.As the first paper to evaluate the impact of internal control self-assessment and attestation report on the cost of capital,the conclusions offers valuable insights for company managers and policy makers.