审计师变更、低价揽客与审计意见购买——基于审计费用角度的检验

审计师变更可能是新任审计师实施低价揽客竞争策略的结果,也可能是企业管理当局实施审计意见购买行为的结果。借助可观察的审计费用,本文对审计师变更这一现象进行了考察,发现在审计师变更过程中新任审计师大多实施了低价揽客策略。但同时,还发现了一种特例,即大规模审计师变更为小规模审计师的情况中,新任的小规模审计师不仅没有像正常竞聘那样降低审计收费,反而获取了更高的审计收费,这表明大规模审计师变更为小规模审计师的情况更可能是企业管理当局实施审计意见购买行为的结果。     

审计收费、审计师变更与意见购买

实证研究表明,虽然变更审计师增加了上市公司年报被出具非标准审计意见和审计意见恶化的可能性,但是审计师变更更为显著地提高了审计意见改善的可能性;审计收费异常增加与被出具非标准审计意见和审计意见恶化的可能性负相关.公司管理层在一定程度上可以成功实现审计意见购买的动机.此外,异常审计收费、审计收费异常增加和异常降低与审计师变更之间不存在显著的交互效应.     

股权激励与审计意见购买研究

上市公司股票期权激励计划公告日前,管理层有进行向下盈余管理的动机,以获取更低的行权价格.因此,管理层有强烈的审计意见购买动机以获得"清洁"审计意见.审计意见购买行为直接损害了审计质量和注册会计师的独立性,危及审计市场及社会经济的有效运行.本文站在独立研究者的角度,阐述了股权激励下审计意见购买的动机和方式,并提出相关防范...     

诉讼风险、审计师变更与审计意见改善

本文对企业陷入诉讼纠纷后变更审计师购买审计意见的行为后果进行考察,研究发现,后任审计师能充分关注客户诉讼事件带来的审计风险,对审计意见购买行为进行抵制,不清洁审计意见的出具概率增加,审计意见并没有改善.进一步区分审计师变更方向后,结果显示升级、平级和降级变更审计师均不能改善审计意见.本文结论表明当前审计市场监管,对审计...     

审计意见购买行为特征及监管研究述评

审计意见购买行为是审计功能异化的集中体现,也是审计监管的重要议题.国内外学者主要研究了意见购买的行为动机、行为路径、行为后果和监管等内容.研究表明,意见购买行为是客观存在的,其实现的主要途径是通过审计师变更向继任审计师购买意见,或者以审计费用或提供非审计服务的方式收买现任审计师.部分研究还表明,意见购买行为具有一定的经济后果.同时,意见购买行为的监管效应则取决于监管成本和监管收益的均衡.以往研究的不足在于尚未进一步揭示意见购买行为的动因,从国内来看,非审计服务是否损害审计独立性以及意见购买行为是否产生不利的经济后果,仍然缺乏必要的经验证据.     

企业集团审计师变更与审计意见购买

审计意见购买是学术界和监管部门都十分关注的话题,但以往研究多以单个上市公司为对象来研究审计师变更和审计意见购买,且国内外的经验研究一直未得到一致的结论。考虑到在新兴市场国家,企业集团是主要的企业组织形式,本文以企业集团作为一个整体进行研究,发现审计师对集团内任何一家上市公司出具非标准审计意见,可能导致集团内多家上市公司变更该事务所的审计业务;企业集团通过变更事务所能够实现审计意见改善。此外,变更对象不同,变更后果也不同,首次审计该集团业务的审计师更容易屈服于集团,更容易被收买。     

分析师跟踪与审计意见购买

本文运用Lennox(2000)的审计意见购买模型,研究分析师跟踪是否会影响公司的审计意见购买行为。研究结果表明,跟踪的分析师越多,公司越倾向于进行审计意见购买。当跟踪的分析师中存在明星分析师时,公司的审计意见购买倾向会更加明显。我们从多个角度进行了稳健性检验,发现上述结论依然成立。本文的研究结果表明,当被更多的分析师跟踪时,企业有更强的动机通过审计意见购买行为获得更好的审计意见。本文的研究丰富了分析师跟踪经济后果的经验证据,拓展了审计意见购买行为影响因素的文献;同时,对于投资者决策以及监管层制定相关政策都具有重要的现实借鉴意义和参考价值。     

审计意见购买行为研究的文献综述

由于审计意见关系到正常的经济发展秩序,影响经济管理水平,所以审计意见购买成为经济管理和审计制度中世界各国政府所关注的的重大问题,同时也是国际会计学界的重要研究课题.本文从审计师变更后审计意见是否得到改善与此同时被审计的公司是否具有审计意见购买动机和审计收费等方面对这些研究进行了整理和总结,并在此基础上对该领域的研究方向进行了展望     

关于审计意见购买的研究分析

本文通过对审计意见购买的动机和实现方式进行研究分析,发现我国有些企业为了追求完美的审计意见存在审计意见购买的动机,主要通过变更审计师和提高审计收费这两种方式实现审计意见购买.     

管理层内部联盟与审计意见购买

本文以2003－2020年中国沪深A股上市公司为样本,研究管理层内部联盟与审计意见购买之间的关系。研究发现,管理层内部联盟关系越紧密,上市公司越可能进行审计意见购买。进一步研究发现,在国有企业、第一大股东持股比例低以及股权制衡度高的企业,管理层内部联盟与审计意见购买之间的关系更为显著;而声誉机制会提升会计师事务所的独立性,抑制审计意见购买行为。研究结论丰富了管理层内部联盟、审计意见购买和审计独立性等领域的文献,为优化公司治理和上市公司审计市场监管提供了理论支持和经验证据。     

金融危机背景下美国卖空监管法律制度改革述评

金融危机让2007年被取消的提价规则是否应当恢复成为美国卖空监管争议的焦点。该规则自1937年出台到废除在美国整整实行了70年。废除提价规则是证交会经过长期酝酿和论证后做出的改革,在危机根源没有确诊情况下,草率否定不仅破坏了监管政策与规则的连贯性,而且也给监管机构监管声誉造成永久伤害。但迫于公众的呼声和国会的压力,证交会不得不推出新的改革方案。分析美国卖空监管制度的演变与改革,本文有两个结论:一是监管政策稳定与连贯是维护金融稳定和提升监管声誉的必要保障;二是机制的灵活与动态适应能力是确保监管政策稳定与连贯的前提。     

Determinants of audit fees in Bangladesh

This paper reports the results of an analysis of the determinants of audit fees of both financial and non-financial companies in Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi audit services market is unusual in that there is no direct involvement of international audit firms in it. The results of the regressions show that the size of the auditee has the greatest influence on audit fees. Whilst there was no international Big Six grouping, it was possible to construct a group of Bangladeshi audit firms which commanded a price premium, based on their size and whether they had a link with an international firm of auditors. Financial services companies were found to have higher audit fees relative to non-financial companies. Subsidiaries of multi-national holding companies also had higher audit fees. The surprising result was that auditees which employed at least one qualified accountant had higher audit fees.     

异常审计收费与审计质量的损害——来自中国审计市场的证据

中国上市公司是否成功地通过许以更高的审计收费购买审计意见呢？本文以2001--2002年上市公司作为研究样本,考察了这些上市公司随后年度审计意见的改善情况与异常审计收费的关联关系,结果发现：异常审计收费与上市公司不利审计意见的改善显著正相关,不过,与预期相反,在上市公司提高审计收费的情况下,内资会计师事务所相比外资会计师事务所更少的允许上市公司改善审计意见。同时,异常审计收费的存在显著损害了会计盈余的价值相关性,上述证据意味着中国上市公司成功的通过审计收费的提升购买了审计意见。     

Relation between external audit fees, audit committee characteristics and internal audit

This study examines whether the existence of an audit committee, audit committee characteristics and the use of internal audit are associated with higher external audit fees. Higher audit fees imply increased audit testing and higher audit quality. We find that the existence of an audit committee, more frequent committee meetings and increased use of internal audit are related to higher audit fees. The expertise of audit committee members is associated with higher audit fees when meeting frequency and independence are low. These findings are consistent with an increased demand for higher quality auditing by audit committees, and by firms that make greater use of internal audit.     

The association between audit committees,compensation incentives,and corporate audit fees

This study uses audit fee data from the 2001–2003 reporting periods to examine the relationship between measures of audit committee effectiveness and compensation incentives with corporate audit fees. Our results suggest that audit committee size, committee member expertise, and committee member independence are positively associated to audit fee levels, consistent with the notion that audit committees serve as a complement to external auditors in monitoring management. In contrast, CEO long-term pay and insider ownership are inversely related to audit fee levels, substituting for external audit effort in motivating management. Notwithstanding results on the full sample of firm-years, we uncover significant differences in the determinants of audit fees between the years examined. An important implication of these results is that explaining the intra-firm variation in audit fees over time is clearly necessary in order to understand the antecedents and consequences of audit fees.

The joint determination of audit fees, non-audit fees, and abnormal accruals

Prior research has estimated piece-meal the determinants of audit fees, non-audit fees and abnormal accruals. Intuition, informal analysis, and a variety of theories suggest that audit fees, non-audit fees, and abnormal accruals are jointly determined. We address this endogeneity issue by modeling the confluence of audit fees, fees for non-audit services and abnormal accruals in a system of simultaneous equations. Our joint estimation provides a starting point to look simultaneously at several competing theories. Using audit and non-audit fee data from the UK for 1994–2000, we find evidence consistent with knowledge spillovers (or economies of scope) from auditing to non-audit services and from non-audit services to auditing. While knowledge spillovers from non-audit services to auditing have been found in prior research [e.g. see Simunic, 1984], the presence of knowledge spillovers from auditing to non-audit services is a new result. Contrary to recent results in Ferguson et al. (2000) and Frankel et al. (2002), we do not find support for the assertion that fees for non-audit services increase abnormal accruals. In fact, contrary to the results in Ashbaugh et al. (2003) and Chung and Kallapur (2003), we find that non-audit fees decrease abnormal accruals, which we attribute to the productive effects of non-audit services. We also find evidence that audit fees increase abnormal accruals, consistent with behavioral theories of unconscious influence or bias in the auditor-client relation. The findings are robust to tests with US data. JEL Classification C30 · M40 · M41 · M49     

Auditor specialization, perceived audit quality, and audit fees in the local government audit market

Prior governmental research implies a positive relation between auditor specialization and audit quality, but the effect of specialization on audit fees is mixed. However, no single governmental study investigates the effect of auditor specialization on both audit quality and audit fees. Also, prior studies focus on either large- or small audit firms and often employ indirect proxies for audit quality. We study the effects of auditor specialization on perceived audit quality and audit fees. Our data represent both Big 5 and smaller audit firms and include three market-based measures of specialization. We survey 241 Florida local government finance directors and find that specialization is positively associated with perceived audit quality but not with audit fees. We also find that Big 5 auditors, often used as a proxy for higher audit quality in prior research, are not uniformly associated with increased perceived audit quality but consistently charge higher audit fees. Our results confirm a relation between measures of audit firm specialization and audit quality and raise questions regarding audit firm size and audit quality in the municipal sector. Our findings suggest that engaging specialized auditors may be good policy for many local governments.     

Female audit committee members and their influence on audit fees

We test the relationship between female representation on the audit committee and audit fees for 624 Australian companies in the year 2011. A positive relationship is found, leading to the conclusion that female presence on audit committees influences the quality of the external audit. Further, we find that gender is the significant audit committee characteristic in predicting audit quality and that women on the audit committee strengthen the positive relationship between firm size and audit fees, and between risk and audit fees. Conversely, we find that female representation dampens the positive relationship between complexity and audit fees.     

Independent audit committee members’ board tenure and audit fees

An independent audit committee is an audit committee on which all members are independent directors. This study examines whether independent audit committee members’ board tenure affects audit fees. On the basis of the prior literature, we formulate an unsigned hypothesis. This is because on the one hand, long board tenure audit committee members (defined as members with board tenure of 10 or more years) have greater incentives to protect their reputational capitals by purchasing increased audit effort, which positively affects audit fees. On the other hand, audit pricing reflects audit committee quality. Long board tenure audit committee members may have less need for increased audit effort because they can effectively oversee the financial reporting process themselves, which negatively affects audit fees. We find that audit fees are negatively associated with the proportion of long board tenure directors on the independent audit committee, consistent with the notion that audit committee members’ long board tenure results in lower audit effort.