内部控制与审计定价研究——基于中国上市公司的经验证据

企业的内部控制质量直接影响着注册会计师的审计投入和审计风险,进而影响到其审计定价水平。本文以我国2008—2009年深沪两市1395家上市公司作为研究样本,实证考察了企业内部控制质量与注册会计师审计定价之间的关系。研究结果表明:注册会计师的审计收费与企业的内部控制质量之间存在着不显著的负相关性。通过在模型中引入相关公司治理变量,本文还发现合理的公司治理机制可以提高企业内部控制的整体质量,从而显著地降低注册会计师的审计收费水平。本文的启示意义在于:完善企业的内部控制制度有助于注册会计师开展风险导向审计,从而降低审计风险和审计成本,提高审计质量。     

可变风险溢价结构下跳扩散模型的期权定价

风险溢价结构是真实测度与风险中性测度间的纽带,能够帮助提取投资者的风险偏好特征。本文针对跳扩散模型构建了灵活的风险溢价形式,允许期权市场隐含信息参与校准跳跃风险的市场价格,进而研究存在跳跃情形下的期权定价,并探索市场风险溢价结构。数值分析和实证研究表明,可变风险溢价结构有助于准确刻画市场定价核曲线,且市场风险溢价结构具有明显的时变特征,跳跃风险溢价能够较好解释隐含波动率曲面。此外,跳扩散模型的可变风险溢价结构在样本内外都具有明显的期权定价优势。考虑了不同样本长度、定价方法、定价区间以及期权产品后,以上结论均是稳健的。本研究有助于系统了解不同市场风险溢价结构与定价规律,有利于深入探索跳跃风险溢价补偿机制。     

注册会计师审计质量控制的探讨

注册会计师审计质量控制的好坏直接决定着审计报告的质量,决定着财务报告预期使用者对财务报表使用程度。良好的审计质量控制能够降低审计风险,提高审计质量,促进注册会计师行业健康发展。本文通过阐述注册会计师审计质量控制的内涵,分析注册会计师审计质量控制中存在的突出问题,并以此提出完善质量控制的对策,为建立良好审计质量控制体系提供理论支撑。     

上市公司法律风险与审计收费——来自中国上市公司的经验证据北大核心

本文实证检验了法律风险对审计收费的影响。结果发现:上市公司的法律风险和审计收费显著正相关。进一步研究表明,国内会计师事务所审计的上市公司,法律风险和审计收费显著正相关,而由"四大"会计师事务所审计的上市公司,法律风险和审计收费相关性不显著。这可以用审计质量溢价来解释,比起国内会计师事务所,"四大"会计师事务所存在明显的审计质量溢价,在审计定价时,法律风险不是主要影响因素。     

现代审计风险模型分析探讨

现代审计风险模型是应用现代风险导向审计理论指导审计实务的工具。本文在分析该模型的逻辑结构和相关概念的基础上,结合案例讨论了如何使用现代审计风险模型进行审计。特别指出由于国内会计师事务所客户的次优级状况决定了现代审计风险模型对中国注册会计师具有重要的意义。     

浅议注册会计师的审计风险

注册会计师的审计风险是由于其对财务报表出具不当意见所引起的。审计风险的存在不仅对注册、会计师的信誉产生了恶劣影响,而且还严重影响着注册会计师职业的生存发展。鉴于此,本文在对注册会计师审计风险成因分析的基础上,提出了审计过程中防范风险的对策建议。     

浅论审计质量、审计定价与法律责任

法律责任,作为一种有效的审计质量约束机制,是遏制注册会计师机会主义行为、保证审计质量的重要途径。在给定相对严格的执业环境和较高法律风险的情况下,高昂的诉讼成本迫使注册会计师行为更加谨慎,他们必须通过提高审计公费来补偿其可能承受的诉讼风险。从这一角度看,法律规范不仅是预防和惩戒的制度安排,更是促使注册会计师保持职业谨慎、合理确定收费水平、维护审计质量的重要激励机制。在法律风险较低的审计市场中,注册会计师可能会以低估审计风险、降低审计公费为筹码承揽业务;如果注册会计师迎合客户购买审计意见需求,那么注册会计师就会牺牲质量换取收益。鉴于此,本文以审计责任为切入点,阐述审计质量、审计定价与法律责任的关系。     

浅议注册会计师的审计风险

注册会计师的审计风险是由于其对财务报表出具不当意见所引起的.审计风险的存在不仅对注册会计师的信誉产生了恶劣影响,而且还严重影响着注册会计师职业的生存发展.鉴于此,本文在对注册会计师审计风险成因分析的基础上,提出了审计过程中防范风险的对策建议.     

关联方交易及其审计要点探讨

由于关联方交易是注册会计师审计工作中的难点问题,本文拟通过对关联方交易审计中所需要掌握的概念、法规及其涉及会计处理和定价政策等方面的归纳和分析,帮助注册会计师在审计中了解和应对关联方交易审计风险.     

内部控制有效性对审计定价的影响——基于深交所制造业的经验验证

内部控制和注册会计师审计存在着深刻的内在联系和一致性。根据理论分析得出:内部控制有效性影响着审计定价,内部控制有效性越高,审计定价越低。运用2010~2011年中国上市公司的数据进行实证检验,实证检验与理论分析存在一定差异,说明在我国审计市场中内部控制有效性还不是注册会计师审计中考虑的一个主要因素,这在一定程度上反映出我国企业内部控制有效性仍有待提高。     

Size effects and audit pricing: Evidence from Germany

Previous research into audit pricing has focused on the US and Australasian markets. This study aims to elaborate on the role played by various size effects on audit pricing using data from the German market.As previous research has shown, audit firms that provide additional non-audit services are able to charge higher fees for auditing. By contrast, our results show that only Big 4 auditors can earn an audit fee premium by providing non-audit services.Our findings also show that the Big 4 premium shown by previous German research is strongly affected by the premium for overall market leadership. Furthermore, we find that the influence of risk variables such as leverage or past losses is significant only for small auditees, while for large auditees size is the determining factor.Finally, this study proposes that using the logarithm of the number of employees is a better proxy for company size than is the more commonly used logarithm of total assets because it is more constant over time and does not bear the risk of interdependencies with other financial statement-based variables. Therefore, its further use in audit pricing research is strongly recommended.     

The effect of large audit firm mergers on audit pricing in the UK

This paper examines the effects on UK audit market concentration and pricing of mergers between the large audit firms and the demise of Andersen. Based on data over the period 1985–2002, it appears that mergers contributed to a rise in concentration ratios to levels that suggest concern about the potential for monopoly pricing. The high concentration ratios have not improved the level of price competition in the UK audit market. Our pooled models suggest that concentration ratios are associated with higher audit fees. The evidence suggests that the effects of mergers between big firms on brand name fee premium and on price competition vary depending on the particular circumstances. The brand name premium is strongest for the largest quartile of companies prior to the mergers. After the Big Six mergers, the premium increases for average‐sized companies but falls for the smallest and largest companies. Following the PricewaterhouseCoopers merger, the premium increases for below median‐sized clients but decreases for above‐median sized clients. For the Deloitte‐Andersen transaction, the premium falls for the smallest and largest companies but increases for those in the second quartile. Our results provide evidence that auditees are likely to pay higher fees if their auditor merges with a larger counterpart. We attribute merger‐related fee hikes to product differentiation, rather than anti‐competitive pricing.     

Credit risk and bond pricing of local government in China

The relationship between credit risk and the pricing of local government bonds in China is explored in this paper. The pricing of local government bonds was found to reflect credit risk, but the risk premium was small. The type of bond (‘directional’ or ‘non-directional’) significantly affected pricing. Repayment source had no effect. The authors make recommendations for the central government, local governments and investors.     

The pricing of capital assets in a multiperiod world

This paper proposes a general framework for the pricing of capital assets in a multiperiod world. Under quite general conditions, the analysis shows that the equilibrium expected nominal return on any asset can always be expressed as the sum of the risk-free rate and various risk premiums. The first risk premium is identical to the usual risk premium in the Sharpe-Lintner-Mossin capital asset pricing model. The mathematical forms of all the remaining risk premiums are identical even though each individual risk premium may be present for a different reason.     

The Interaction between Nonexpected Utility and Asymmetric Market Fundamentals

This paper studies a nonexpected utility, general equilibrium asset pricing model in which market fundamentals follow a bivariate Markov switching process. The results show that nonexpected utility is capable of exactly matching the means of the risk-free rate and the risk premium. Asymmetric market fundamentals are capable of generating a negative sample correlation between the risk-free rate and the risk premium. Moreover, an equilibrium asset pricing model endowed with asymmetric market fundamentals is consistent with all five first and second moments of the risk-free rate and the risk premium in the U.S. data.     

审计师收取客户债务风险溢价了吗?

已有研究发现,公司债务风险越高,审计师收取的审计费用越高;然而,审计费用提高的原因可能是审计投入的增加,也可能是审计师收取客户公司的债务风险溢价。由于缺少审计投入的数据,已有研究无法回答审计师是否收取客户公司债务风险溢价的问题。本文以我国A股上市公司为研究样本,运用我国独到的审计工时数据,就此展开相关问题研究。研究发现,在控制了审计投入之后,客户债务风险与审计费用显著正相关,表明审计师收取了客户公司的债务风险溢价。进一步研究表明,审计师对财务状况较差和治理较差的公司以及非国有企业收取更高的债务风险溢价,规模较小的会计师事务所收取的债务风险溢价高于规模较大的会计师事务所。     

Pricing errors and estimates of risk premia in factor models

In this paper, we consider the effect of the theoretical pricing error in the arbitrage pricing model on estimates of risk premia implied by the model. Under arbitrage pricing, the pricing error satisfies a strong bounding condition where for an infinite set of assets, the sum of squared pricing errors is bounded. We characterize the pricing error in terms of orders of probability and estimate an expected returns model which allows for pricing errors less than order one in probability. The principal finding of the paper is that misspecification of the pricing error and misspecification of the factor structure has no effect on the bias or mean squared error of the dominant risk premium. This implies that an exact form of arbitrage pricing can be used to estimate risk premia.     

International asset pricing under segmentation and PPP deviations

We analyze the impact of both purchasing power parity (PPP) deviations and market segmentation on asset pricing and investor's portfolio holdings. The freely traded securities command a world market risk premium and an inflation risk premium. The securities that can be held by only a subset of investors command two additional premiums: a conditional market risk premium and a segflation risk premium. Our model is empirically supported with important implications for tests of international asset pricing.     

Robust general equilibrium under stochastic volatility model

This paper studies the implications of model uncertainty under stochastic volatility model for equilibrium asset pricing. We derive the equilibrium equity premium and risk-free rate in a pure-exchange economy with one representative agent who is averse not only to risk but also to model uncertainty. The results show that robustness increases the equilibrium equity premium while lowers the risk-free rate.     

Audit fee determinants and auditor premiums: evidence from the micro-firm sub-market

Despite the growing literature on the market for audit services, to date no study has examined the determinants of audit fees for the smallest auditees in the market. This study therefore provides some new theory and evidence on the determinants of the audit fees of micro-firms operating in the UK manufacturing sector. A key finding of the study is that in the highly competitive market under consideration, independent small auditees willingly paid a premium to be audited by a mid-tier or a (then) Big Six auditor, with the latter commanding the higher premium. It is concluded that these findings are consistent with Big Six (and, to a lesser extent, mid-tier) auditors commanding a brand premium stemming from the (perceived) higher quality audit conducted by large auditors, for which small firms are willing to pay a premium in order to benefit from associated ‘reputational’ and ‘signalling’ effects. The common finding that the explanatory power of audit fee models declines as a function of firm size is also examined. The empirical analysis confirms this effect, but evidence is offered that, rather than resulting from model misspecification, it is likely that audit prices of the smallest auditees are relatively insensitive to variations in corporate size, which may result from lower incremental economies of scale and minimum pricing.