审计回扣 审计质量与审计监管

审计回扣产生的根本原因是由于缺乏法律赔偿机制 ,使机会成本转换成了事实上的利润 ,从而提供了较大的回扣空间。审计回扣是会计师事务所对政府干预审计定价的理性反应 ,有助于审计质量的维护。本文认为 ,取消政府限价或者允许明折明扣、限制或禁止经营多样化和加强法律赔偿机制建设 ,能有效解决审计回扣所暴露的审计监管问题。     

Audit Adjustments and Public Sector Audit Quality

In the context of austerity-inspired reforms to public audit in England we investigate the extent to which audit firms mitigate management bias in public sector financial reports. A substantial body of literature finds that both public and not-for-profit managers manage ‘earnings’ to report small surpluses close to zero by managing deficits upwards and surpluses downwards. Under agency theory, auditors acting in the interests of their principal(s) would tend to reverse this bias. We exploit privileged access to pre-audit financial statements in the setting of the English National Health Service (NHS) to investigate the impact of audit adjustments on the pre-audit financial statements of English NHS Foundation Trusts over the period 2010–2011 to 2014–2015. We find evidence that auditors act to reverse management bias in the case of Trusts with a pre-audit deficit, but find no evidence that this is the case for Trusts with a pre-audit surplus. In the case of Trusts in surplus, these findings are consistent with auditors’ interests being aligned with management, rather than principals.     

民间审计执业环境与审计质量

民间审计执业环境决定着审计质量的优劣,而审计质量是民间审计赖以生存的生命线,直接关系到民间审计的兴衰成败。脱钩改制后的民间审计组织当务之急是改善治理审计执业环境,其中,重中之重是建立质量控制体系,实行质量控制,完善法制建设。强化职业道德教育和个人业务能力的培训。     

审计收费与审计质量探析

审计收费是影响审计质量的重要因素，两者在一定程度上是正相关的。规范审计市场、促进审计收费的合理化和提高审计质量是一个系统工程，需要多方面的配合。综合整治的措施应包括加强股东对聘请注册会计师的影响；建立信用机制，辨别审计质量；健全法律体系，加大执业风险；加强监管力度，防治无序竞争。     

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。     

招标选聘审计师、审计质量与审计收费

本文研究国资委招标选聘审计师政策的实施效果。以2000年至2011年政府控股的A股上市公司为样本,研究发现:首先,经国资委通过招标选聘的审计师审计后,公司财务重述的情况显著减少。其次,通过招标选聘审计师能降低审计收费。这表明通过招标选聘审计师总体上能得到"质优价廉"的审计服务。并且中央国资委实施招标选聘审计师的效果好于各级地方国资委。最后,进一步分析发现,中央国资委招标选聘审计师时,所选聘的会计师事务所规模比较大,而地方国资委选聘的审计师则更多是本地小事务所。本文研究表明,限制央企管理层影响审计师的招标选聘审计师政策,能够提高审计质量和降低审计费用。     

非审计服务与审计质量

本文讨论会计师事务所向其客户提供非审计服务与审计质量的关系。审计质量包括技术性与独立性两大内涵特征。会计师事务所向其客户提供非审计服务，可以从技术上促进审计质量的提高，但是否会损害审计独立性则取决于非审计服务所得利益是否大于放弃独立性的可能成本。如果前者不大于后者，作为经济人的审计师将选择保持独立。笔者认为，在目前中国审计市场，对绝大多数事务所而言，尚不存在使非审计服务损害审计独立性的条件。因此，事务所适当开拓非审计服务业务，将有利于我国审计职业的发展。     

审计质量和经济结构

引言 近来,人们十分关注被审计财务报表的质量.在亚洲,至少从1997年金融危机以来,这是一个重要问题.中国最近的有关报道也表明这种担忧仍然存在.举世瞩目的美国安然公司破产案说明,即使拥有成熟制度的发达的经济大国,也不能避免审计失败.     

Audit Firm Tenure and Audit Quality in a Constrained Market

We examine the relation between audit quality and audit firm tenure in the Iranian audit market, which is constrained by government policies that create intense competition for clients among many small audit firms. We develop arguments that these circumstances create cost pressures that entrench low audit quality and render auditors' plans more predictable to managers wishing to misstate their accounts. Using publicly available data for the audits of listed companies in Iran prior to mandatory audit firm rotation and the incidence of misstated financial reports identified by the Iranian Association of Certified Public Accountants Inspection Office, we find that the likelihood of a misstatement is lowest in the first two years of audit firm tenure. We also find that the likelihood of misstatement is not associated with the year preceding a mandatory audit firm rotation, suggesting outgoing auditor effort is not sensitive to the prospect of subsequent revelations of deficiencies. Although our results from a pre-mandatory rotation period show that frequent rotations appear to improve the financial reporting quality in our sample, we are wary of interpreting these results as support for the mandatory audit firm rotation policy in Iran. Rather, we suggest this is a peculiar consequence of deficiencies in audit quality inherent in the Iranian market.     

国际金融危机、审计费用溢价与审计质量

以2003-2017年我国A股上市公司为样本,考量当企业受到金融危机冲击时,审计费用与审计质量之间关系的变化。研究结果表明,金融危机期间存在审计费用溢价现象,然而更多的收费却伴随着审计质量的下降。研究结论对于在市场危机环境下进行审计风险管控和审计市场的规范具有一定的借鉴意义。     

审计师子群体地位与审计质量

本文在中国文化背景下考察审计师子群体地位对审计质量的影响,并在此基础上研究积极的直接接触对群体地位与审计质量关系的调节作用。基于1990-2016年50起会计师事务所合并事件,我们识别出53个事务所分所中存在的106个审计师子群体。在此基础上,我们发现,相对于高地位审计师子群体,合并后低地位审计师子群体客户盈余管理水平显著提高。此外,我们还发现,当分所内审计师子群体间有积极的直接接触时,相对于高地位审计师子群体,合并后低地位审计师子群体客户盈余管理水平提高的幅度减弱。这些研究结果表明,分所内低地位审计师子群体保持或者提高其在分所内的地位,维护其自身利益的动机更强,则其发生机会主义行为的可能性越大,其审计质量随之变差;而积极的直接接触则可以有效改善群际关系,缓解审计师子群体地位对审计质量不利影响。     

Local Gambling Attitudes and Audit Quality: Evidence from Audit Adjustments

This study examines the influence of local gambling attitudes on audit quality. As a preference for gambling correlates to a greater tendency to take risks, we hypothesize that auditors make a greater magnitude of audit adjustments for clients headquartered in gambling-prone areas to reduce heightened audit risk. Consistent with our hypothesis, the empirical results show a positive relation between local gambling attitudes and the magnitude of audit adjustments. Further analyses show that this association is more pronounced when the regulatory cost is higher, and when the board chair or CEO comes from a gambling-prone area. We also find evidence that gambling culture results in greater magnitudes of both upward and downward audit adjustments, audit firms appoint more experienced audit partners to gambling-prone clients, and there is a fee premium for gambling-prone clients.     

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 Firm Ranking,Audit Quality and Audit Fees: Examining Conflicting Price Discrimination Views

In this study, we examine whether highly ranked audit firms in Iran, as determined by the Securities and Exchange Organization (SEO), earn a fee premium, firstly, by providing superior quality audit services or, secondly, due to reputation created by the ranking system implemented by the SEO. We employ price discrimination theory, and we test quality discrimination versus brand reputation explanations in the context of a unique institutional setting (where international audit firms are not allowed to operate). The data are derived from firms listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) for the period 2006 to 2015. Our results show that the quality of audit services (using all of our measures) provided by the highest ranked audit firms is not superior to that of the non-highest ranked firms. In addition, the audit fee models suggest that the highest ranked firms charge significantly more audit fees compared to lower ranked firms. We employ several sensitivity tests and the results do not change materially. Such findings go against the “quality-based price discrimination” view but support the reputation-based view, and make a significant contribution towards understanding the economic consequences of state-determined ranking of audit firms rather than allowing the market to determine quality differentiation.     

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.     

会计盈余管理与独立审计质量

本文从盈余管理的角度考察了中国注册会计师独立审计的质量,发现中国的注册会计师能够在一定程度上鉴别会计盈余管理的程度,这种鉴别的能力与盈余管理的手段有关。相对操控的经营性应计利润而言,注册会计师在对以操控非经营性应计利润为手段的盈余管理行为的审计中表现出了较高的审计质量。另一方面,审计质量还和盈余管理的方向有关,虽然注册会计师对以增加利润为目的的正向盈余管理行为更加敏感,但是与对负向盈余管理行为的审计比较,并没有体现出更高的审计质量。