Impact of renewable long-term audit mandates on audit quality

Anglo-American countries like the US and the UK allow companies to switch auditors every year. In contrast, some continental European countries restrict auditor switching by allowing only renewable long-term audit mandates. This paper aims to analyse the impact of renewable long-term audit mandates on audit quality. Audit quality is considered from the viewpoint of the external users of the financial statements. It is questioned whether renewable long-term audit mandates have an impact on the auditor's reporting behaviour and on auditor independence. This research is motivated by the lack of consensus in the literature on the impact of the length of the auditor client relationship on audit quality. Moreover, few empirical studies use publicly available secondary data in order to determine whether perceived threats to auditor independence actually compromise auditor independence. Therefore, our research methodology consists in the development of a logistic regression model in which the explanatory variables are measured using publicly available data. The results of the study suggest that long-term auditor client relationships significantly increase the likelihood of an unqualified opinion or significantly reduce the auditor's willingness to qualify audit reports. A significant difference was also found between the auditor's reporting behaviour in the first two years versus the last year of the audit mandate. Auditors are more willing to issue an unqualified audit report in the first two years of their official mandate than in the last year of their mandate. This could be an indication that the decision to renew the auditor's mandate is already taken and known to the auditor before he has issued his last audit report within his current mandate. The policy implications of these findings could be in favour of mandatory auditor rotation to maintain the value of an audit for the external users. However, given recent theoretic evidence on the adverse effects of mandatory auditor rotation, there is a need to develop alternative measures to safeguard auditors' independence.     

审计任期与审计独立性——持续经营审计意见的经验研究

以注册会计师是否因财务方面存在可能导致公司持续经营能力问题的事项或情况对上市公司出具持续经营审计意见作为审计独立性的衡量指标,分别从签字注册会计师任期与会计师事务所任期两个角度具体考察了审计任期与审计独立性之间的关系。结果发现,无论是注册会计师任期,还是事务所任期,审计任期越长,审计独立性就越低。这为我国已实施的签字注册会计师强制轮换政策的合理性提供了经验支持。     

The Empirical Research on Auditor Independence and Mandatory Auditor Rotation

Using, the method of correlation coefficient, this paper discusses the empirical relationship between audit tenure and audit opinion in annual reports in China A-share market and period of mandatory rotation of auditor. The research finds that the negative correlation between auditor tenure and non-standard unqualified audit opinion is statistically significant, and auditor tenure might impair his/her independence. To enhance auditor independence and improve audit quality, it is necessary to rotate mandatory auditor. The results also fred that consecutive auditing years should not exceed 5 years when the existing auditor has been the auditor of listed company, and mandatory rotation of auditor adapts to the rotation of CPA firms in charge of a client.     

Book reviews

Recent regulatory initiatives stress that an independent oversight board, rather than the management board, should assume the role of auditors' client. In an experiment, we test whether the type of client affects auditors' independence. Unique features of the German institutional setting enable us to realistically vary the type of auditors' client as our treatment variable: we portray the client either as the management preferring aggressive accounting or the oversight board preferring conservative accounting. We measure auditors' perceived client retention incentives and accountability pressure in a post-experiment questionnaire to capture potential threats to independence. We find that the type of auditors' client affects auditors' behaviour contingent on the degree of the perceived threats to independence. Our findings imply that both client retention incentives and accountability pressure represent distinctive threats to auditors' independence and that the effectiveness of an oversight board in enhancing auditors' independence depends on the underlying threat.     

What matters in disclosures of key audit matters: Evidence from Europe

New regulation in the European Union has introduced the mandatory disclosure of key audit matters (KAMs) to audit reports. The EU has identified KAMs as significant risks, significant transactions or events, or significant judgments by auditors. This paper aims to determine the factors that influence the number of KAMs that auditors disclose in the main European countries under the new regulation. We predict that the litigation risk, reputation loss, auditor–client relationship, precision of accounting standards, and the effect of regulators and supervisors’ activities affect the number of KAMs that auditors disclose. The sample consists of firms on the FTSE 100, CAC 40, or AEX 25 that have disclosed KAMs at the 2016 fiscal year‐end. In line with our hypotheses, the findings show that a higher number of business segments (complexity) and more precise accounting standards lead to the disclosure of a higher number of KAMs. Contrary to our expectations, the results indicate that a positive association exists between the audit fee and the number of KAMs disclosed. As audit fees can be related to higher client risk, this finding could indicate that litigation risk dominates any auditor–client dependence. Further, although auditors often view their audits of banks as complex, the findings show a negative association between banks and the number of disclosed KAMs. This evidence may be related to the fact that financial institutions are in a highly regulated and supervised industry that reduces the need to disclose the KAMs.     

Audit Fees in a Joint Audit Setting

Abstract

This paper uses the uniqueness of the French audit environment to conduct an in-depth study of audit pricing issues associated with the requirement to hire two independent auditors (joint audit). I use a model derived from Simunic's [(1980). The pricing of audit services: Theory and evidence. Journal of Accounting Research, 18(1), 161–190] seminal work to examine to what extent audit fees are influenced by the number of Big 4 joint auditors (zero, one, or two). After controlling for well-known drivers of audit fees that are specific to audit client firms (size, complexity, and risk), for governance characteristics and for auditor selection, the paper shows that the decision to hire two Big 4 auditors as joint auditors does not require the payment of a higher Big 4 premium compared to the choice of one Big 4 auditor paired with a smaller auditor, other things being equal. The choice of two Big 4 auditors thus appears to be a rational economic choice for large and international firms.     

顺从还是懈怠？中注协约谈与执业质量检查的叠加监管压力研究

基于压力理论和制度理论,以2014—2018年沪深A股非金融类上市公司为研究对象,探究中注协约谈与执业质量检查的叠加监管压力对审计质量的影响。实证结果表明,在中注协约谈与执业质量检查的叠加监管压力下,审计师显著提升了审计质量。进一步研究发现,行业叠加监管压力对审计质量的提升作用只在当面约谈、签字注册会计师同性别、签字注册会计师平均执业年限较长、签字注册会计师年平均客户数量较少时才明显;行业叠加监管压力与法律监管压力之间存在着替代作用;在面对行业叠加监管压力时,审计师也收取了一定的溢价。研究结论能够明晰审计师面临行业叠加监管压力时的行为表现,也对证券审计市场行业自律性监管具有借鉴意义。     

Auditor independence in economies in transition: a study of Russia

The independence of auditors is regarded as key to their credibility as external verifiers of external financial statements. The requirement for external auditors to be independent of their clients when undertaking an audit is enshrined in the International Federation of Accountants' (IFAC) Code of Ethics and in the European Union's Eighth Directive. In the IFAC code this requirement is translated into various situations where observance of certain rules should ensure independence. As the countries of Central Europe and the former Soviet Union have drafted and implemented new laws on external audit, some of these auditor independence rules have been included in the new laws and codes of professional practice. Yet the rationale for the inclusion of these rules is not always clear, particularly given the different cultural and business contexts. In this paper, the authors have identified the auditor independence rule requirements that have been implemented into the laws and codes of practice in Russia. These requirements are then analysed against the economic, social and historic background in Russia, based to a large extent on interviews with auditors, enterprise management and users of financial statements, to generate questions about the efficacy of the auditor independence rules. This should provide relevant input to international and national bodies concerned with the drafting of rules relating to auditor independence in countries with different social and economic traditions.     

The effects of environmental risk information on auditors' decisions about prospective financial statements

This study tests a model of how auditors make decisions when presented with environmental risk information in the context of a task that requires their professional opinion on a company's forecasted information. Auditing provided a small-world context where declarative and procedural knowledge have been well documented in terms of the rules for analysing financial information. This research uses a conceptual modelling approach to determine auditors' perceptions of environmental risk information and the effects on their judgement and decision choices when issuing an examination report supporting forecasted financial statements. Auditors were provided with environmental risk information that they had to process and integrate in their decision-making. The results demonstrated that auditors act on unfamiliar declarative knowledge using their standard procedural knowledge. The results from eighty-four senior auditors displayed evidence that auditors' perception of environmental risk information is downplayed compare to the traditional accounting information during their judgement and decision choice phases. When confronted with conflicting information, auditors tend to place more reliance on financial rather than environmental risk information. One of the implications of this study is that auditors should be trained to handle non-traditional information, such as environmental risk.     

Investor legal protection,capitalized development costs,and audit fees: A cross‐country analysis

Our study explores the association between capitalized development costs and audit fees. International Accounting Standard No. 38 stipulates the discretion to capitalize the development costs of internally generated intangible assets. We find a positive association between capitalized development costs and audit fees, which reflects auditors’ concern that managers may use the discretion of development cost capitalization to manipulate earnings. Moreover, this positive association is mitigated by stronger investor legal protection because stronger investor legal protection alleviates the earnings management concern from capitalized development costs. These results suggest that country‐level legal regimes affect auditors’ perception on client firms’ accounting choices. Our study contributes to the literature exploring how legal regimes affect auditor behaviors.     

审计师轮换类别与审计结果——基于“关系”的视角

审计师强制轮换制度能够从制度上对审计师独立性给予一定程度的保证,而社会关系的存在会对审计师的独立性产生影响,但同时也能够增加前后任审计师工作交接的效率。以2007—2019年签字审计师轮换为样本研究发现,同一事务所内签字审计师的变更会使得后任审计师出具清洁审计意见的可能性提升,后任审计师审计当年发生财务重述的可能性较低,且可操纵性应计利润较低。但是,后任审计师获取的审计费用并没有显著降低。与不同事务所之间的签字审计师轮换相比,同一事务所审计师轮换情况下,由于更易进行信息共享与沟通,后任审计师的审计质量更高,且与前任审计师审计质量相比,后任审计师审计质量有所提升。     

Secrecy Culture and Audit Opinion: Some International Evidence

We examine whether and how auditors respond to audit risks arising from secrecy culture when making audit opinion decisions. Using a sample of international Big N auditors from 33 countries, we find strong and robust evidence that auditors are more likely to issue modified audit opinions to clients domiciled in countries with a strong secrecy culture. In addition, we find that the association between secrecy culture and auditors' propensity to issue modified audit opinions is less pronounced in countries with strong investor protection than that in countries with weak investor protection.     

The Effects of Auditor Social and Human Capital on Auditor Compensation: Evidence from the Italian Small Audit Firm Market

Abstract

This study examines whether social and human capital influence the compensation of individual auditors in the small audit firm market. We employ a sample of Italian auditors and use measures from the network and auditing literatures to capture their professional connections, representing social capital, and their industry expertise, representing human capital. Our findings show a positive and economically meaningful association between these individual attributes and auditor compensation. We run several tests to address potential endogeneity issues in our research design. Our results suggest that, in the small audit market, clients perceive as valuable those auditors with higher social and human capital, and as a result, are willing to pay a premium for these specific auditor attributes.     

客户关系变动提高了审计费用吗？

在全球供应链不断发展的形势下，稳定的供应链关系愈发重要。从审计师风险应对视角探讨客户关系变动是否以及如何影响审计费用。实证结果表明，客户关系变动显著增加了审计费用。机制检验发现，客户关系变动使审计师加大审计投入并感知到更高的审计风险，进而收取更高的审计费用。进一步探究客户关系变动的原因及其对审计费用的影响后发现，客户自身面临财务困境时引发客户关系变动，提高了审计费用;但当企业经济政策不确定性较高时却降低了客户关系变动，从而降低审计费用。基于事务所层面和企业层面的异质性检验还发现，客户关系变动与审计费用的正向关系主要体现在高资质事务所、客户集中度较高和治理水平低的企业中。研究结论为探讨客户关系变动的经济后果提供了新的证据和视角，对当下中国如何进行供应链风险管理具有启示意义。     

External Auditor Reassessment of Client Business Risk Following the Issuance of a Comment Letter by the SEC

Abstract

Following Arthur Andersen's conviction for obstructing justice, auditors faced a one-time significant change in their regulatory environment because it was clear that (i) major audit partnerships could be closed and (ii) post Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), regulators would take a far more attentive (aggressive) role. In response auditors considered whether the pricing of audits should be revised to take account of the increased risk of regulatory intervention and litigation. Obviously such re-pricing would need to be targeted at those firms for which the risks were greatest. One early warning signal of such events occurring is the issuance by the Security Exchange Commission (SEC) of a Comment Letter (CL). We investigate whether there is any evidence that if a client receives a CL this is used to re-price audit services. Specifically, we investigate whether issuance resulted in upward pressure on audit fees, and whether this effect was simply transient around the issuance period or alternatively persisted some years into the future. This research finds that after a client receives a CL, auditors adjust audit fees upwards in the period in which the CL is received. In addition it is shown that for subsequent periods in which the auditor does not spend time assisting the client respond to a specific CL, an initial rise in audit fee persists. This is consistent with the hypothesis that auditors reassess the reputation and litigation risk of the client on the basis of the SEC issuance of a Comment Letter.     

Competitive Procurement of Auditing Services with Limited Information

We analyse the auditing procurement process when the client is initially uncertain about her/her auditing needs and when she/he cannot discern the level of assurance provided by the auditor. The client's limited information can lead to under-auditing and substantial rent for auditors, despite the presence of ex ante competition among auditors. The information asymmetry can also make it difficult for new auditors with superior auditing technologies to displace incumbent auditors. In addition, the asymmetry can limit the incentives of auditors to improve their technologies.     

Audit firm tenure and audit quality: A cross‐European study

Directive 2014/56/EU and Regulation (EU) No. 537/2014, which came into effect in June 2016, introduced the mandatory rotation of audit firms after a maximum period of 10 years with the same client. We conduct a cross‐European study with the aim of assessing whether long audit firm tenures are associated with lower levels of audit quality. The sample for the study is based on the constituents of the Standard & Poor's Europe 350 index for the years between 2009 and 2016, and we utilize three different sets of proxies for audit quality: discretionary accruals, differences between reported earnings and earnings benchmarks, and accounting restatements. The main result of the study finds that companies with more than 10 years of tenure with their auditors do not have a lower audit quality than other firms. In fact, this study provides some evidence of a higher audit quality for these firms. The results are robust to various checks. Therefore, if there does not seem to be a problem of a lack of audit quality associated with long audit firm tenures, the necessity of establishing a maximum tenure, as the new European regulation does, may be questioned.     

频繁并购重组与异常审计收费

以2012—2017年A股上市公司为样本,采用异常审计费用衡量审计师对上市公司频繁并购重组的风险溢价,探究企业频繁并购重组与审计师风险溢价收费的关系,研究发现企业频繁并购重组会导致审计师风险溢价提高。从商誉和盈余管理角度探究其路径机制发现,商誉和真实盈余管理是频繁并购重组导致更高审计师风险溢价两个重要中介变量,而应计盈余管理并没有发挥中介作用,即频繁并购重组企业操纵利润的手段倾向于采用真实盈余管理,而非应计盈余管理。     

Enforcement Actions and Auditor Changes

In this paper, we examine whether the uncovering of erroneous financial statements by German enforcement agencies is related to subsequent auditor changes. We argue that enforcement actions are likely to reveal information about the client or its auditor, which might affect auditor choice by initiating an update of mutual expectations. Our empirical findings indicate that firms with erroneous financial statements indeed have an increased probability of subsequent auditor changes. Firms also tend to change from a non-Big4 auditor to a Big4 auditor in this situation, suggesting that clients increasingly seek the reputation and services of Big4 auditors. Big4 auditors in turn do not appear to refrain from taking over error-firms as new clients in the German setting, which is characterized by limited auditor liability. Additionally, auditor changes are more likely to occur before the public announcement of an error, indicating that firms take action as soon as the uncovering of an accounting error becomes sufficiently certain.     

审计师工作量压力与盈余质量——基于门槛模型的研究

采用2012-2016年我国上市公司及其签字审计师为样本,引入门槛回归模型,实证分析不同事务所组织机制支持下审计师个人工作量压力如何影响审计行为决策及盈余质量。研究结果表明:会计师事务所行业专长存在门槛效应,行业专长水平越高,事务所组织支持力度越大,审计师工作量压力对公司盈余质量的负面影响越小;会计师事务所综合评价存在门槛效应,事务所综合评价水平越低,事务所组织支持力度越小,审计师工作量压力对公司盈余质量的负面影响越大;会计师事务所人力资本存在门槛效应,人力资本质量越高,审计师工作效率越高,审计师工作量压力对公司盈余质量的负面影响越小。