Audit Hours and Unit Audit Price of Industry Specialist Auditors: Evidence from Korea

Higher audit fees associated with auditor industry specialization could represent higher unit price charged by industry specialist auditors (ISAs) or the provision of a greater quantity of audit services. This study exploits a field setting in Korea, where the disclosure of audit hours is required in company annual reports, and finds that ISAs charge significantly higher total audit fees but also expend significantly greater audit hours than non‐ISAs. When audit fees and hours are considered together, the unit audit price of ISAs is significantly lower than that of non‐ISAs. This indicates that higher total audit fees associated with ISAs are likely to be attributable to greater audit hours associated with ISAs. However, greater audit hours for ISAs may suggest higher audit quality or may simply indicate that the additional audit work performed by ISAs is conducted by relatively cheaper junior auditors. Our work provides an alternative explanation for the higher total audit fees documented in the previous studies.     

Brand Name Audit Pricing,Industry Specialization,and Leadership Premiums post‐Big 8 and Big 6 Mergers*

This paper investigates brand name, industry specialization, and leadership audit pricing in the wake of the mergers that created the Big 6 and the Big 5 accounting firms. For samples of Australian listed public companies in each of the postmerger years 1990, 1992, 1994, and 1998, we estimate national audit fee premiums for the Big 6/5 auditors and the industry specialists and leaders. We find limited support for the ability of the Big 6/5 to obtain fee premiums over non‐Big 6/5 for those industries not having specialist auditors. Nonspecialist Big 6/5 auditors are able to obtain fee premiums over nonspecialist non‐Big 6/5 auditors for those industries having specialist auditors. However, this result only holds among the smaller half of our sample. We do not find strong support for the presence of industry specialist premiums in the postmerger years, especially after 1990, using various definitions of industry specialist. We find, at best, limited support for the presence of industry leadership premiums. The evidence suggests that after the Big 8/6 audit firm mergers, some caution is required in generalizing the Craswell, Francis, and Taylor 1995 finding of national market industry specialist premiums. More generally, the study raises questions about the tenuous link between the concept of specialization and national market‐share statistics.     

预算软约束、企业财务风险与审计定价

本文具体考察在上市公司存在预算软约束的情况下,我国的会计师事务所在审计定价时如何考虑上市公司的财务风险.研究结果表明:①事务所的审计收费与上市公司的负债比率之间呈显著的正相关关系;②在国有上市公司中,预算软约束程度的增加降低了公司的财务风险,因此审计收费与公司负债比率之间的正相关关系有所减弱;③在金融发展水平比较高的地区,预算软约束程度的减轻提高了公司的财务风险,因此审计收费与公司负债比率之间的正相关关系有所增强.这一研究结果说明,我国的会计师事务所在审计定价时不仅考虑了上市公司的财务风险,而且还会根据公司的预算软约束程度对其财务风险进行相应的调整.     

Pricing of Initial Audit Engagements by Large and Small Audit Firms*

We investigate the extent to which auditors of U.S. companies reduce fees on initial audit engagements (“fee discounting”). We hypothesize that rivalries among sellers, in terms of client turnover and price competition, are more intense among small audit firms. The data support this hypothesis. New clients account for 34 percent of all clients for small audit firms, but only 9 percent of all clients for large audit firms. We theorize that differences in client turnover rates between large and small audit firms can be explained by the market structure of the audit industry, which consists of an oligopolistic segment dominated by a few large audit firms and an atomistic segment composed of many small audit firms. We further hypothesize and confirm that fee discounting is more extensive in the atomistic sector, and our results confirm this hypothesis. Our analysis of audit fee changes indicates that clients who switch auditors within the atomistic sector receive on average a discount of 24 percent over the prior auditor's fee. However, clients who switch auditors within the oligopolistic sector receive on average a discount of only 4 percent. Given that price competition is known to be less intense in oligopolistic markets than in atomistic markets, we believe that market structure theory can explain why fee discounting is lower when larger audit firms compete for clients.     

边界效应、规模效应与后发大国的产业发展战略

本文从规模效应与边界效应的视角研究了后发大国的产业发展战略选择问题。本文结论认为,后发大国产业发展战略的制定要注意以下几点:第一,后发大国产业发展战略的制定首先必须考虑建立可持续发展模式的问题;第二,后发大国不能仅依照基于要素禀赋的比较优势战略理论来制定产业发展战略,而要充分利用规模效应的优势与边界效应的保护,努力掌握产业发展的核心技术并实现产业升级与技术赶超;第三,后发大国的产业发展战略必须以内需为主。对于中国这个世界上最大的发展中国家来讲,转变经济增长模式、自主创新、扩大内需等发展战略是完全适合中国产业发展的后发大国发展战略。     

企业绿色创新对审计定价的影响——基于我国上市公司绿色专利数据的证据

基于2010—2021年沪深A股上市公司数据,实证分析企业绿色创新对审计定价的影响,以期为强化审计监督赋能绿色发展提供一定的理论依据与经验参考。研究发现,企业绿色创新能够提升审计定价水平,且企业可持续经营在企业绿色创新与审计定价中发挥着中介效应,是企业绿色创新促进审计定价水平提升的重要路径。进一步分析发现,机构投资者持股能够缓解企业绿色创新与审计定价的正相关关系。异质性检验发现,企业绿色创新与审计定价的正相关关系在民营企业中更显著。     

Production Efficiency and the Pricing of Audit Services*

In this paper, we examine the relative efficiency of audit production by one of the then Big 6 public accounting firms for a sample of 247 geographically dispersed audits of U.S. companies performed in 1989. To test the relative efficiency of audit production, we use both stochastic frontier estimation (SFE) and data envelopment analysis (DEA). A feature of our research is that we also test whether any apparent inefficiencies in production, identified using SFE and DEA, are correlated with audit pricing. That is, do apparent inefficiencies cause the public accounting firm to reduce its unit price (billing rate) per hour of labor utilized on an engagement? With respect to results, we do not find any evidence of relative (within‐sample) inefficiencies in the use of partner, manager, senior, or staff labor hours using SFE. This suggests that the SFE model may not be sufficiently powerful to detect inefficiencies, even with our reasonably large sample size. However, we do find apparent inefficiencies using the DEA model. Audits range from about 74 percent to 100 percent relative efficiency in production, while the average audit is produced at about an 88 percent efficiency level, relative to the most efficient audits in the sample. Moreover, the inefficiencies identified using DEA are correlated with the firm's realization rate. That is, average billing rates per hour fall as the amount of inefficiency increases. Our results suggest that there are moderate inefficiencies in the production of many of the subject public accounting firm's audits, and that such inefficiencies are economically costly to the firm.     

审计师行业专长、客户重要性与审计质量

本文以中国上市公司2006--2009年数据为样本,检验了审计师行业专长、客户重要性对审计质量的影响以及审计师行业专长对审计质量的影响是否受制于客户重要性。研究结果发现,总体而言,审计师行业专长能够抑制客户的盈余管理行为,提高审计质量,审计师对客户的经济依赖性并不会影响到独立审计判断。但行业专长审计师只针对大客户提供高质量审计服务,而对小客户这种效应则并未体现,这是具有行业专长审计师基于中国审计市场环境作出的最优选择。进一步研究发现,上述研究结论仅存在于“十大”样本组中。     

双边实际汇率、出口规模与出口质量

本文采用2005~2011年中国对147个国家和地区的6位数海关编码出口数据,实证研究了人民币与进口国货币之间的双边实际汇率变化对中国出口的影响。研究表明,不同产品出口的实际汇率弹性与产品质量有关,高技术含量产品出口的汇率弹性小于低技术含量产品。人民币相对于进口国货币的实际升值一方面会对出口规模产生显著的负面影响,另一方面却能优化出口结构,提升中国出口产品的整体质量。     

低价进入式审计定价与审计独立性:一项实验研究

会计公司为招揽审计业务,采用低价进入式定价策略,期望通过签订较长期的审计约定来弥补前期的损失,美国会计协会认为这种审计定价策略会损害注册会计师的独立性。通过借鉴自然科学实验的方法,设计可控的实验,实验结果表明低价进入式审计定价策略在实验室市场环境里普遍存在。低价进入式定价策略在经营者拥有聘用和解聘审计师的权利时,会损害审计独立性;在所有者拥有聘用和解聘的审计师的权利时,不会损害审计独立性。     

The Earnings Quality Information Content of Dividend Policies and Audit Pricing

Recent studies indicate dividends are associated with higher‐quality earnings. Our study extends the literature by examining whether dividends' information is associated with auditors' assessment of their clients' earnings quality. Our results show that auditors charge lower fees to dividend‐paying clients than to nondividend‐paying clients and the average fee discount ranges from 6.0 to 10.6 percent. More importantly, we find dividends have an interactive effect with respect to earnings persistence and earnings manipulation: the negative association between audit fees and earnings persistence is more pronounced for dividend firms; and dividend payouts mitigate the positive relation between earnings manipulation risk and audit fees. Our results imply dividends reduce audit risk by enhancing clients' earnings quality information. We contribute to the literature by showing that auditors reflect the earnings quality information content of firms' dividend policies in their pricing decisions.     

贸易自由化、产业规模与地区工资差距

本文在新经济地理学框架下构建了非对称的三地区空间模型研究贸易自由化、产业规模与地区工资差距的关系。研究结果表明:贸易自由化可能扩大或缩小地区间收入差距,这主要取决于地区相对产业份额以及本地与国外市场接近程度。当本地接近于国外市场并且产业份额相对较小时,贸易自由化与区域间收入差距呈倒"U"型关系;否则,贸易自由化扩大区域间的收入差距。使用1992～2008年中国27个省份面板数据证实了该假说,这也解释了Egger et al.(2005)与Redding和Sturm(2008)研究结论迥异的原因。此外,贸易自由化有利于各区域工资水平的提高,对产业份额较小地区尤为明显。     

行业规模、集约化生产与制造业产业集群

培育先进制造业集群是我国制造业未来的发展方向,本文在已有文献的基础上构造了衡量制造业集群发展水平的指标,并结合2000-2018年湖南省机械工业行业的数据进行了经验事实研究,发现湖南省机械工业产业集群水平在一定程度上还存在优化提升的空间。基于此,本文通过构建包含消费者、制造业厂商和数据提供商在内的三部门动态一般均衡模型研究得出,制造业产业集群发展水平提高的推动力主要来源于集群的行业规模与平均集约化生产水平之间的内生作用机制,二者的相互制约决定了单期的均衡产业集群水平向跨期动态最优值过渡的推演路径。本文为制造业产业集群的实际发展提供了一个较为合理的理论支撑,同时具体刻画了新型生产要素——数据要素的定价机制、交易原则及市场均衡。     

江苏省行业容量利用小时数的特性分析

文章首先对江苏省整体经济、售电市场运行现状进行综合分析,彻底掌握江苏售电市场总体运行特征和重点分析对象;然后,本项目研究容量与售电量之间的关系,探索不同行业运行容量的变化趋势;最后分析不同行业容量利用小时数的变化规律和影响因素。通过从用电根源剖析行业发展情况,挖掘不同行业的容量利用特征和影响因素的关系,掌握电力市场电量发展变化内因与外在驱动因素,对未来电力电量预测提供有力的技术支撑和判断依据。     

Pricing, Sunk Costs, and Market Structure Online: Evidence from Book Retailing

While online consumers are less concerned than traditional consumersabout firm location, they may be more concerned about unobservablequality and, to signal this, online retailers rely more on advertisingthan traditional retailers. Imperfect price competition mayarise because of vertical product differentiation, incompleteconsumer awareness, and near-perfect information exchange betweenretailers. This paper evaluates alternative theories of competitionand market structure in online retailing. Advertising, productdevelopment, and revenue data for the online book market revealthat consumers respond to advertising and website spending ratherthan low prices. As the market size expanded, during 1997–2001,these endogenous sunk costs escalated and there was no majornew entry. Advertising-to-sales ratios and market-concentrationratios are much higher than for traditional bookselling. Usingprice and demand information for individual books over a numberof weeks, we find counter-cyclical and cross-sectional pricevariation inconsistent with perfect price competition.