审计准则讲解：持续经营

关于总则(一)制定目的与依据本准则的制定目的是为了规范注册会计师在会计报表审计中考虑持续经营假设的合理性,明确工作要求,保证执业质量。制定依据是《独立审计基本准则》。(二)持续经营假设的含义通常,企业如果已决定进行清算或停止营业,或者已确定在下一个会计期间将被迫进行清算或停止营业,则不应再以持续经营为基础编制会计报表。因此,持续经营假设意味着被审计单位在编制会计报表时假定其经营活动在可预见的将来会继续下去,不拟也不必终止经营或破产清算。持续经营假设对会计报表的影响主要体现在资产、负债账面价值的确认和计量上…     

Firm Transparency and the Costs of Going Public

We demonstrate that firms that are more transparent pay less, in all components of issuance costs, to go public. We employ a sample of 334 previous leveraged buyouts and a characteristic-matched control sample to test the hypothesis that greater firm transparency before the issue decreases the flotation costs of the initial public offering. These flotation costs are divided into initial underpricing, underwriter discount, administrative expenses, and the overallotment option required to take the firm public. Our results provide further evidence of the asymmetric information hypothesis as it applies to initial public offerings.     

The Audit Report under Going Concern Uncertainties: An Empirical Analysis

This study explores the value of the audit report in the context of the going concern qualification (GCQ) decision along the joint dimensions of auditor competence and independence. Likelihood of company failure, auditor switch rates, the self-fulfilling prophecy argument and audit firm size are analysed as variables potentially affecting the value of the audit report in a GCQ situation. This study focuses on the outcomes of such decisions: the presence or absence of a GCQ, for a large sample of UK quoted companies over the decade 1977–86. Our results suggest that, unless the likelihood of failure is very high, the probability of a GCQ is very low. We find some evidence in support of an association between the presence of a GCQ and auditor switching but no support for the self-fulfilling prophecy argument. In addition, smaller UK audit firms do not appear to exhibit lower GCQ rates than do large firms. There is some evidence that the issues of auditor competence and independence may be a cause for concern in this context in the UK.     

Auditor's Engagement Risk and Audit Fees: The Role of Audit Firm Alumni

Abstract:  This study explores the effect of the association of audit firm alumni with their alma mater on audit prices. The tests indicate that there is a moderate reduction of up to 21% in the level of audit fee when alumni (i.e., former employees) of the incumbent audit firm sit on the client board of directors which is consistent with the engagement risk theory. This suggests that there is an 'alumni effect' in the market for audit services. The findings hold only in the large company segment of the market. The results are robust to different model specifications and alternative samples. The sample comprises all executive and non-executive directors who run the UK quoted companies and are simultaneously ICAEW qualified chartered accountants. The study's implications for the accounting profession and the regulators are also discussed.     

Model Predictions and Auditor Assessments of Going Concern Status

This paper compares the predictions of a bankruptcy prediction model and the assessments of auditors on the going concern status of a sample of 165 bankrupt companies and 165 matched non-bankrupt companies. Data from US companies for the period 1978 to 1985 were used. Probit analysis (with the weighted exogenous sampling maximum likelihood procedure) was applied to estimate the model parameters. The Lachenbruch U method hold-out accuracy rates of the model are 85.45% for bankrupt firms, 100.00% for non-bankrupt firms, and 99.91% overall. The corresponding accuracy rates of the auditors based on their audit reports are 54.37% for bankrupt firms, 100.00% for non-bankrupt firms, and 99.73% overall. The sensitivity of optimal cut-off points to misclassification costs of Type I and Type II errors was also considered. Results of the study suggest that bankruptcy prediction models can be useful to auditors in making going concern assessments. Further, such models can serve as analytical tools and defensive devices.     

An Empirical Study of Firm Size and Competitiveness in German Life Insurance

Based on a purely rank-oriented approach, this empirical study analyzes to what extent superior firm size in German life industry generally translates into corporate advantages for the companies concerned. It turns out that while modest advantages with some criteria are measurable, any such benefits are usually outweighed by unquantifiable factors unrelated to firm size. Confining the study to a highly homogeneous subgroup of life insurers, however, reveals substantial corporate advantages in a number of areas, thereby confirming well-established theoretical reasoning.     

The Firm Size Effect and the Economic Cycle

Small firms have, on average, lower return on assets and higher leverage than do large firms. Small firms tend to do well in good economic conditions but to perform poorly in the worst economic conditions. We investigate the hypothesis that the small firm effect is manifest in the expansion phase of the economic cycle but not in the contraction phase. The empirical results of our study confirm the hypothesis for 1976–95. We use the alpha, residual, and regression methods in testing the hypothesis.     

公司上市决策与成长性资金需求

公司上市是公司成长阶段最重要的战略决策之一。理论研究表明为公司成长性募集资金是公司上市决策的主要动因。本文对创业板首批上市的宝德股份成长性进行考察,结果表明虽然宝德股份满足创业板对拟上市公司成长性指标的要求,但宝德股份上市之后无论是经营业绩还是股票市场都没有表现出高成长性,由此可见宝德股份很可能并不是为了满足成长性资金需求而选择上市。本文结果表明虽然监管机构试图使股票市场为高成长性公司提供资金促进公司高速成长,然而,股票市场财富效应等原因可能比公司成长性需求更能影响公司的上市决策。     

会计师事务所规模与盈利反应系数

本文用盈利反应系数来测度证券市场对不同规模的事务所及其所提供的审计服务的反应.研究发现,投资者对"大规模事务所"中的"本土大所"的盈利反应系数并不显著较高,但是其对"四大合作所"的盈利反应系数则显著较高,这说明投资者认为"四大合作所"的审计质量高于"本土大所"的审计质量.亦说明要想赢得投资者的青睐,"本土大所"需要进一步增强自己的品牌声誉,在"做大"的同时要"做强".     

An Unconditional Asset-Pricing Test and the Role of Firm Size as an Instrumental Variable for Risk

In an intertemporal economy where both risk (stock beta) and expected return are time varying, the authors derive a linear relation between the unconditional beta and the unconditional return under certain stationarity assumptions about the stochastic process of size-portfolio betas. The model suggests the use of long time periods to estimate the unconditional portfolio betas. The authors find that, after controlling for the betas thus estimated, a firm-size proxy, such as the logarithm of the firm size, does not have explanatory power for the averaged returns across the size-ranked portfolios.     

Strategic Decision Making of the Firm Under Asymmetric Information

This paper develops a simple signaling model whereby high valuation firm uses levels of investment, debt and dividends to convey information to the market regarding its valuation. Conditions are determined under which investment, debt and dividends are employed in a separating Nash equilibrium. Unlike many other signaling models where the source of asymmetric information concerns only the mean of the firms' cash flow, our model allows for two sources of asymmetric information: the mean and the variance of the cash flow. This paper finds that the choice of signals depends on the relative importance of these two sources of informational asymmetry. For example, we show that high valued firms signal their values by decreasing their debt if the source of asymmetric information is mainly driven by the variance of the cash flows. This latter result differs from the debt signaling models found in the literature. The findings of this paper are consistent with extensive empirical evidence.     

The Information Content of Dividend Initiations and Firm Size: An Analysis Using Bid-Ask Spreads

The bid-ask spread of stock prices is examined for a sample of dividend initiating firms. The average percentage and dollar bid-ask spreads increase significantly on the day preceding the Wall Street Journal Index announcement date, possibly reflecting, on average, the market maker's anticipatory uncertainty. The day -1 increase in spread is inversely associated with firm size, an information environment proxy, after considering the simultaneous effects of dividend yield, returns variance, dollar trading volume and share price. The average percentage spread declines significantly on day 0 from its day -1 level and remains lower, on average, over a 365 day post-announcement period than 90 day pre-announcement levels. Similar results are obtained for dollar spread averages. The post-announcement percentage spread decline suggests a resolution of uncertainty, and is positively associated with the dividend yield. Dividend initiation announcements appear to reduce informational asymmetry.     

Firm Size and Cyclical Variations in Stock Returns

Recent imperfect capital market theories predict the presence of asymmetries in the variation of small and large firms' risk over the economic cycle. Small firms with little collateral should be more strongly affected by tighter credit market conditions in a recession state than large, better collateralized ones. This paper adopts a flexible econometric model to analyze these mplications empirically. Consistent with theory, small firms display the highest degree of asymmetry in their risk across recession and expansion states, which translates into a higher sensitivity of their expected stock returns with respect to variables that measure credit market conditions.     

对注册会计师关注企业持续经营能力的若干思考

本文根据新修订审计准则的要求,详细论述了注册会计师评价企业持续经营假设的责任,企业持续经营假设不再合理的迹象,重点提出了注册会计师对持续经营假设应实施的专门审计程序,并对出具审计报告时应注意的各种问题做了列示与提醒。     

Firm Size and Growth in the United Kingdom Life Insurance Industry

This study tests whether the organic growth rates of United Kingdom (UK) life insurance firms are independent of size, as predicted by Gibrat's (1931) Law of Proportionate Effects. Using data for 1987–1996 and the three subperiods, 1987–1990, 1990–1993, and 1993–1996, we find that smaller life insurance firms tended to grow faster than larger ones in the 1987–1990 period and that larger life insurers tended to grow faster than smaller ones in the 1990–1993 and 1993–1996 periods. But over the ten‐year period, we find no significant difference between the growth rates of small and large firms, thus supporting Gibrat's Law as a long‐run tendency in the UK life insurance industry. When we examine firm‐specific determinants of asset growth, we find evidence in 1987–1996 and 1987–1990 that more diversified life insurance firms experienced higher growth rates on average than more specialized life insurers. We also find that the growth of life insurance firms was related to input costs during the 1990–1993 and 1993–1996 subperiods.     

论CPA不确定性审计意见预测——基于重大疑虑事项的持续经营

随着竞争的日趋激烈,企业持续经营不确定性显著增加,注册会计师对持续经营问题的审计也日益受到关注。本文分析我国注册会计师对持续经营问题的审计状况,统计持续经营不确定审计意见中重大疑虑事项的出现频率,并在此基础上构建持续经营不确定审计意见预测模型。     

Market Making Contracts,Firm Value,and the IPO Decision

We examine the effects of secondary market liquidity on firm value and the IPO decision. Competitive aftermarket liquidity provision is associated with reduced welfare and a discounted secondary market price that can dissuade IPOs. The competitive market fails in particular for firms or at times when uncertainty regarding fundamental value and asymmetric information are large in combination. In these cases, firm value and welfare are improved by a contract where the firm engages a designated market maker to enhance liquidity. Such contracts represent a market solution to a market imperfection, particularly for small, growth firms.