会计师事务所合并、审计市场结构与审计定价

以2006年至2009年初发生的8起"强强联合"会计师事务所合并案为研究对象,分析合并发生前后审计市场结构与审计定价的变化后发现:随着会计师事务所合并案的增多,市场结构呈现出市场集中度增加以及大所之间竞争更为均衡的特点,国内本土所的市场力量在逐渐增强,但与国际"四大"之间还存在着十分明显的差距。从单变量检验来看,合并后会计师事务所对同一客户的审计收费较合并前显著增加,但在控制其他影响审计定价的因素后,合并因素对审计定价虽仍有正向作用,但是在统计上并不显著。     

The Impact of the Big 8 Mergers on Market Power: Evidence from the Hong Kong Market

This study examines the impact of the Big 8 mergers on market power in an audit market where the merging firms have little presence. Audit fee changes for each merger participating firm are identified and fee changes for several post‐merger years are examined. The pre‐merger differential market power between the merging and non‐merging long‐established Big 8 firms (Price Waterhouse and KPMG Peat Marwick) in Hong Kong provides a unique opportunity to examine whether the mergers could help the merging firms to increase their market power. The results are consistent with the hypotheses that the audit fees of the merging firms were significantly lower than that of the non‐merging, long‐established Big 8 firms before the mergers, but the audit fees of the merged firms increased significantly to a level comparable with that of the latter group after the mergers. In addition, the market share of the merged firms increased significantly after the mergers. However, no association is found between market concentration and market power. Overall, the results show that the Big 8 mergers have helped the merged firms increase their market power and market share in the Hong Kong audit market where they had little presence.     

严监管与审计质量改善——基于证监会138号《新规》的自然实验

以沪深A股上市公司2016—2019年样本数据作为实验组,选取同期中国大陆在中国香港上市的由内资事务所及国际四大审计的三组公司（H股、红筹股和民营股）作为对照组,采用DID方法实证检验了严监管与审计质量改善的相关性。结果显示,严监管的《新规》导致会计师事务所面临更高的惩戒与诉讼风险压力,能够对会计师事务所强化法律责任与声誉管理起到积极作用,从而能够普遍改善会计师事务所的审计质量;进一步地,相较于小规模事务所,《新规》促进大规模事务所审计质量改善的效果更显著。     

International transmission of stock price movements: Evidence from the U.S. and five Asian-Pacific markets

Using a vector autoregressive analysis, this paper examines the structure of international transmissions in daily returns for six national stock markets— the U.S., Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. Our results generally indicate that (1) the degree of interdependence among national stock markets has increased substantially after the 1987 stock market crash, (2) the U.S. market plays a dominant role of influencing the Pacific-Basin markets, (3) Japan and Singapore together have a significant persistent impact on the other Asian markets, and (4) the markets in Taiwan and Thailand are not efficient in processing international news.     

交叉上市公司内部控制缺陷披露的影响因素与市场反应——基于兖州煤业的案例研究

基于兖州煤业股份有限公司2007年及以前年度在内地、香港和美国三地证券市场对内部控制缺陷的披露情况,探讨了影响交叉上市公司在内地市场披露内部控制缺陷的因素,并比较了不同市场对内部控制缺陷披露的反应程度。研究发现:交叉上市公司能够受到更严格的市场监管和外部审计监督,因而能够更及时地披露内部控制存在的缺陷和漏洞并加以补救;市场对上市公司的披露行为和改进行动有所反应。     

Audit market structure and related changes in Taiwan: the effects of CPA qualification changes and mergers

There are four material structure changes over the certified public accountants (hereafter the CPA) industry in Taiwan since 1988. They are the relaxation of CPA qualification examinations in 1988, the merger of KPMG and Cooper & Lybrand (C&L) in 1999, the reduction of CPA examination pass rates in 2001, and the merger of T. N. Soong (TNS) and Deloitte & Touche Taiwan (D&TT) in 2003. Thus, this study investigates how the four events make impact on the market concentration of CPA industry and the market competition type. Empirical data are obtained from the Census Report of Public Accounting Firms in Taiwan (1989–2003). Main findings show that the Big international accounting firms dominate the majority of the audit market. Besides, the Big international (or Big Four) market concentration during 1992–1997 is lower than that in other periods after loosing the CPA examination pass rates since 1988. Since tightening up of CPA examination pass rates in 2001, the Big international (or Big Four) market concentration display an increasing trend. Finally, accounting firm mergers in 1999 and 2003 have all contributed to the increase of market concentration of international (or Big Four) accounting firms.     

The international firms as new entrants to the statutory audit market: an empirical analysis of auditor selection in Greece, 1993 to 1997

This paper investigates choice of statutory auditor in Greece in the five years subsequent to the 1992 liberalization of the audit market. We analyse auditor choices by 205 companies which, by 1997, represented almost 90% of companies listed on the Athens Stock Exchange. We find that the level of shareholdings by foreign shareholders is positively associated with choice of a Big Six versus any other auditor both immediately after liberalization in 1993 and still in 1997, indicative of the role of the Big Six in providing audit credibility in the eyes of international investors. In addition, Big Six auditors strengthened their position in the finance sector and, outside the finance sector, among larger companies over the period studied. We also find that in both 1993 and 1997 Big Six firms were distinguished specifically from the second-tier international firms, consistent with the view that, in post-liberalization Greece, companies by their choice of auditor appear to be distinguishing Big Six firms from all others but not between second-tier international firms and local auditors. These findings shed light on the hitherto unresearched area of which companies Big Six auditors target in order to gain market share when they are new entrants in an environment radically changed by regulatory reform. In addition the research extends the auditor name brand reputation debate by its finding that, in post-liberalization Greece, second-tier international firms appear to be distinguished from the Big Six but not from the local audit firms.     

Are the ‘Big Six’ ‘big’ in Belgium?

Studies in the United States, Europe and Australia have shown that the market for audit services is highly concentrated and largely dominated by the same ‘Big Six’ international audit firms. This paper measures the degree of concentration in the Belgian audit market through an empirical study of the number of professionally qualified auditors employed by each audit firm and some characteristics of their clients. Our calculations show that the concentration ratios, however measured, are low when compared with other countries, possibly due to the low value attached to the certification of financial statements by a professionally qualified auditor. This lack of importance can be explained by characteristics of the Belgian environment (e.g. a relatively passive capital market, dominated by a few large holding companies) which may induce companies to chose cheaper (domestic) audit firms. We also calculate Spearman rank correlations between the rankings of the audit firms based upon the different audit firm revenue proxies. All the correlations show it is of no importance which measure is used to rank audit firms.     

Corporate Accounting Disclosure in ASEAN

This article analyses corporate annual report disclosure practices in five ASEAN countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. The purpose is twofold. First, to ascertain the extent, pattern and nature of corporate disclosure in ASEAN. Second, to reveal whether existing disclosure requirements would be conducive to accounting harmonisation in the ASEAN region. Data sources are the annual reports of 145 public companies listed on ASEAN stock exchanges, and disclosure requirements in companies legislation and stock market regulations. A disclosure checklist and a model are used to analyse disclosure practices. The results reinforce and extend extant international studies of disclosure practices. They are thought likely to benefit those seeking to operate public companies in ASEAN and those contemplating accounting harmonisation in ASEAN.     

The asymmetric effect of crude oil prices on stock prices in major international financial markets

The aim of this paper is to explore the potential asymmetric impacts of positive and negative shocks in crude oil prices on stock prices in six major international financial markets which include China, Hong Kong, America, Japan, Britain, and Germany. We test for these asymmetric effects on 8 major international financial markets indices over the 2007M01–2020M03 periods. Our independent measures include the prices of Brent crude oil futures and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures. We use the nonlinear ARDL (NARDL) model proposed by Shin et al. (2014), which can capture both short- and long-run nonlinearities through positive and negative partial sum decompositions of the explanatory variables. This research finds that positive and negative fluctuations of oil price have asymmetric effects on stock price index in four financial markets, but the performance of the asymmetry is different. Specifically, the impacts of volatility in oil prices on two indices of Chinese stock prices are different, and the asymmetric effects of oil price volatility on stock price indices in China and other financial markets are significantly different.     

AH股公司境内外审计收费差异的影响因素研究

选取AH股公司2001年至2007年的审计收费数据,对影响其境内外审计收费差异的因素进行回归分析。结果显示,影响AH股公司境内外审计收费差异的因素主要有:(1)以资产规模、子公司数目和净利润差异调整项目数衡量的审计业务复杂性;(2)以上市地总数和审计意见类型衡量的审计业务风险程度;(3)同一集团审计的情况;(4)境内外审计师是否为四大所;(5)境外审计师的变更;(6)公司经营年份数;(7)境内外工资水平的对比关系。     

Order aggressiveness, pre-trade transparency, and long memory in an order-driven market

Recent empirical research has documented that the state of the limit order book influences stock investors' strategies. Investors place more aggressive orders when the same side of the order book is thicker, and less aggressive orders when it is thinner. We conjecture and demonstrate that this behavior is related to long memories of trading volume, volatility, and order signs in stock markets. We investigate our conjecture in two types of artificial stock markets: a transparent market, in which agents observe all limit orders on both sides of the book and order volumes at those prices before they trade; and a less transparent market, in which agents observe only the best five bid and ask quotes with the depth available at these limit prices. The first market structure resembles certain actual stock exchanges in the level of pre-trade transparency, such as the Australian Stock Exchange, NYSE OpenBook, and the London Stock Exchange, whereas the second market structure is consistent with stock exchanges such as Euronext Paris, the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing. We demonstrate that our long memory results are robust with different levels of pre-trade transparency, implying that the strategy constructed by the state of the order book is key for explaining long memories in many actual stock exchanges.     

审计质量与公允价值计量的价值相关性

文章探讨审计质量是否能够提高公允价值计量的价值相关性,研究发现:(1)公允价值信息具有价值相关性;(2)四大审计能够提高公允价值计量信息的价值相关性。研究结论为在中国这样的新兴市场国家如何提高公允价值计量的价值相关性提供了经验证据。     

会计师事务所更迭与审计质量——中、美上市公司的比较

以2004年—2009年出具无保留审计意见的中国证券市场沪深A股921家中国上市公司和美国证券市场1122家美国上市公司为研究对象,利用面板数据OLS估计、固定效应及随机效应估计,实证检验上市公司会计师事务所更迭与审计质量的关联互动性后发现,无论在中国市场还是美国市场,会计师事务所更迭与审计质量之间存在显著的负相关关系,上市公司在更换会计师事务所之后的审计质量反而更低,中国上市公司中会计师事务所更迭的负向影响更加严重。     

跨市场上市公司审计定价研究

本文从我国跨市场上市公司审计师选择的特点出发,考察了境内外审计市场不同需求弹性对审计收费的影响,并对协同效应和范围经济对审计定价的影响进行了研究。结论表明,当审计师对境外报表进行审计时,“四大”的审计收费显著高于非“四大”。而当会计师事务所对境内报表进行审计时,“四大”的审计定价与非“四大”相比无显著差异。结论验证了“四大”不同市场不同定价的竞争策略,如果进行审计的会计师事务所之间可以实现协同效应或范围经济,从而能节约跨市场上市公司的时间和精力,上市公司将愿意付出更多的审计费用。结论支持了境内会计师事务所可以通过与境外会计师事务所建立联系构筑竞争优势的策略。     

The Association Between Accounting Determined Risk Measures and Analysts' Risk Perceptions in a Medium-Sized Stock Market

This paper investigates the association between financial analysts' risk perceptions and accounting and market determined risk measures in Hong Kong. Analyses from a survey of risk perceptions among analysts reveal that:
(1) Accounting determined risk measures, together with a contextual variable, explain 0.77 of the variation in perceptions. The statistic is comparable to those reported for the US and UK stock markets.
(2) Analysts perceive higher risk in companies expected to exhibit a decline in earnings.
(3) Correlation between perceptions and p-e ratios is -0.74.
(4) Correlation between market beta and p-e ratios/perceptions is not significant.
The results suggest that earnings expectations play a substantial role in the formation of risk perceptions and that risk perceptions may be a superior surrogate for ex ante market risk than beta. Implications for stock valuation in medium-sized markets are discussed.     

北京与国际城市的比较研究

21世纪初,北京提出建设国际化国际上大都市的战略目标,到2010年基本建立起国际化大都市的框架.为了评价北京国际化程度,论文选取了人口、经济、公共交通、航空运力和国际组织等几个主要指标,选择了国际上公认的国际城市纽约、东京、伦敦、巴黎、新加坡和香港等与北京进行比较,量化北京与国际城市的距离,提出加快国际化步伐的具体措施.     

Voluntary Disclosure by State-owned Enterprises Listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong

This study examines the impact of international capital market pressures on the voluntary disclosure of three types of information (strategic, financial, and non-financial) in the annual reports of former wholly state-owned People's Republic of China (PRC) enterprises, listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (SEHK). Consistent with a cost­benefit framework, we find that PRC H-Share firms disclose significantly more strategic and financial information than other SEHK firms. Additional analysis of disclosures in their home listings on the PRC exchanges, however, suggests an alternative explanation. The fact that these firms have been selected for "showcasing" in international capital markets may also play a role in our findings. While H-Share firm disclosures in the PRC also appear sensitive to management's assessment of the associated costs, the magnitude of differences across listing locations suggests that disclosure practices on the SEHK may also reflect the effects of state-encouraged disclosure policies. Our findings contribute to the understanding of disclosure behavior among former wholly state-owned enterprises and to the emerging literature on the efficacy of the privatization process.     

中国审计市场制度安排与研究思考——兼评审计意见购买的内在机理

审计市场在发展中,逐渐形成一些主要制度安排,如会计师事务所体制形式变迁、上市公司可以同时发行A股、B股和H股等、责权利失衡的上市审批和监管以及设定配股和退市底线。这些安排导致国际所在审计市场的主导地位,并产生股权融资偏好、IPO包装上市、上市公司保壳和控股股东圈钱等奇怪的现象,同时也决定着审计服务的基本特征。结合这些特有的制度背景,才能深刻把握审计意见购买的内在机理,从而揭示审计意见购买的基本规律和主要特征,并推动审计理论的发展。本文对此进行了探讨。     

寡头竞争型审计市场的培育及其影响分析

本文运用新制度经济学原理,借鉴注册会计师职业发达国家的经验,提出我国应该借助非市场力量推动注册会计师事务所的合并,在审计市场上培育寡头型事务所,从而强化审计师的独立性,提高审计质量。寡头竞争型的审计市场并没有扼制事务所之间的竞争,而是将部分竞争行为内部化,提升了审计市场竞争的层次和水平,即寡头型事务所在审计服务质量、服务效率和服务深度上进行更为有效的竞争。