Auditor Reputation,Auditor Independence,and the Stock‐Market Impact of Andersen's Indictment on Its Client Firms*

In this paper, we study a broad sample of Arthur Andersen clients and investigate whether the decline in Andersen's reputation, due to its criminal indictment on March 14, 2002, adversely affected the stock market's perception of its audit quality. Because these reputa‐tional concerns are more of an issue if an auditor's independence is impaired, we investigate the relationship between the abnormal market returns for Andersen clients around the time of the indictment announcement and several fee‐based measures of auditor independence. Our results suggest that when news about Andersen's indictment was released, the market reacted negatively to Andersen clients. More importantly, we find that the indictment period abnormal return is significantly more negative when the market perceived the auditor's independence to be threatened. We also examine the abnormal returns when firms announced the dismissal of Andersen as an auditor. Consistent with the audit quality explanation, we document that when firms quickly dismissed Andersen, the announcement returns are significantly higher when firms switched to a Big 4 auditor than when they either switched to non‐Big 4 auditors or did not announce the identity of the replacement auditor. Our empirical results support the notion that auditor reputation and independence have a material impact on perceived audit quality and the credibility of audited financial statements, and that the market prices this.     

会计师事务所国际化对审计质量的影响

基于中国会计师事务所在美国公众公司会计监督委员会（PCAOB）注册视角,系统探究会计师事务所国际化对审计质量的影响。研究发现,中国会计师事务所国际化促使审计质量提升。进一步结合审计师能力、审计师声誉等机制检验结果说明会计师事务所国际化通过学习效应、声誉效应等渠道提高审计质量。研究表明会计师事务所国际化有助于提高审计质量,对于加强信息披露质量与完善资本市场建设具有积极作用,为会计师事务所国际化实践提供理论参考。     

审计质量、企业声誉与企业高质量发展

企业高质量发展是实现我国经济高质量发展的重要抓手,企业的高质量发展离不开审计监督。选取2012-2021 年中国A 股上市公司为研究样本,实证研究审计质量对企业高质量发展的影响。研究发现,审计质量能有效促进企业高质量发展,这种促进作用在经过内生性检验和稳健性检验之后依旧成立;机制检验表明,审计质量通过提升企业声誉促进企业的高质量发展;异质性检验发现,审计质量对国有企业、东部地区企业的高质量发展促进作用更明显。     

Competition and Big 6 Brand Name Reputation: Evidence from the Ontario Municipal Audit Market*

The 1991 amendment to the auditor appointment requirement of section 86 of the Ontario Municipal Act removes certain barriers to entry into the Ontario municipal audit market. The purpose of this study is to provide evidence that the amendment has enhanced competition in this market. The results indicate that there is a general reduction in the real municipal audit fees compared with the pre‐amendment levels, and that the market has become more contestable following the amendment. Notwithstanding the heightened competition, the Big 6 audit firms continue to command audit fee premiums over the non‐Big 6 audit firms. This suggests that Big 6 audit fee premiums possibly reflect brand name reputation rather than monopoly/oligopoly rents.     

Reputation and Imperfectly Observable Commitment: The Chain Store Paradox Revisited

This paper reconsiders Selten's famous chain store paradox and its solution by Kreps and Wilson, which is based on entrants' uncertainty concerning the incumbent monopolist's predisposition to fight entry. Following Milgrom and Roberts, we interpret the predisposition to fight entry as the result of a rationally chosen commitment. However, commitment is imperfectly observable. Other assumptions are maintained. We show that a rational monopolist never fights entry, even if he may commit himself to an aggressive course of action. Entry occurs in all markets and is never fought. Hence, Selten's chain store paradox comes back in full force.     

Corporate Endowment Insurance Fee Reduction and Employee Wages: Evidence from China

To stimulate economic growth, the Chinese government implemented three consecutive policies between 2016 and 2019 to reduce the corporate endowment insurance contribution ratio (CEICR), the highest payment item for Chinese companies. Using China's CEICR reduction policies as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper evaluates the impact of corporate payment burden reduction on employee wages. Generally, reducing CEICR appears to prompt companies to increase employee wages. Corporate cash flow is a possible channel of influence. Moreover, the positive effect is found to be more pronounced in companies that are more labor intensive, performing better in labor payment compliance, and located in regions with higher pressure for elderly care. This paper offers evidence in favor of implementing CEICR reduction policies from the perspective of improving the well-being of employees.     

社会化网络媒体关注与审计费用—基于微博媒体数据的分析

以2012-2014年创业板上市公司数据为研究对象,抓取新浪微博公众号上对被审计企业负面报道的关键词,研究了社会化网络媒体的负面报道对审计费用的影响。研究发现,媒体对上市公司的态度越负面其审计费用越高;但重复负面报道对审计费用的影响却是无效的。另外,相比“十大”会计师事务所,非“十大”会计师事务所对被审计单位负面消息更加敏感。在被审计单位被媒体负面报道后,新任会计师事务所会要求更高的审计费用。上期审计意见为非标意见对审计费用有正向影响,但其并没有增强媒体关注对于审计费用的影响效果。     

消费者对企业捐赠行为的评价:企业声誉及捐赠类型的影响

文章基于中国消费者对企业捐赠行为及企业社会责任的认知,探索了消费者对三种不同声誉类型公司（声誉较好、声誉一般和声誉较差）和两种不同捐赠方式（无条件捐赠和事业关联营销）的认知和评价。研究发现中国消费者对无条件捐赠和事业关联捐赠的动机归因并不存在显著性差异;声誉较好的企业参与无条件捐赠不一定能提升其形象,但是参与事业关联捐赠则会对企业造成负面的影响;声誉较差的企业参与任何一类捐赠活动都可以有效地改善其负面形象,而且参与事业关联捐赠的效果更好。     

新会计准则下商标及企业商誉关系研究

商标和商誉作为企业重要的经济资源,一直是两个极易混淆的概念,这种混淆不仅掩盖了企业获取超额收益的源头,而且导致市场认知的企业价值与会计记录时常发生扭曲。这种状况在新会计准则出台之后,商誉已经从无形资产中脱离出来,在资产负债表中已经确定了独立的经济地位而得到改善。但是相对于有形资产评估而言,人们对无形资产的认识尚有待深入,评估方法还有待完善。本文通过对商标、商誉两种企业重要无形资源基本内涵的剖析,明确了两者间的区别与联系,指出了两者在特征上具有的相似性,存在现象与本质、内涵与延伸等联系。同时,这两者在最初定义的本质内涵、研究背景及理论基础、价值凸现、法律保护及赔偿办法等四个方面存在着明显的区别。     

日本农业者年金制度的困境和出路

1970年，日本政府出台了农业者年金法，旨在提高农业就业者的年金水平，同时实现农业经营的年轻化。但该制度在实施过程中遇到了许多困难和问题，甚至一度陷入破产的窘境。2000年日本政府对该制度提出了改革方案，但遭到了包括农民在内来自社会各方面的强烈批评与反对，新制度实施后也出现了新的问题。农业者年金制度能否存在下去引起了朝野上下的极大关注。     

中国保险市场与投资市场的互动研究:定价方法与实证

从新的观点出发,把保险公司的赔付情况与投资收益结合,对保险建立在一类条件较弱的投资背景下的线性正倒向随机微分方程的改进模型。根据一类特殊线性倒向随机微分方程的显式解,加入时间序列预测方法,给出了基于投资的保险定价公式,为保险公司厘定保险的保费提供新的可行性方法。     

The Use and Characteristics of Foreign Component Auditors in U.S. Multinational Audits: Insights from Form AP Disclosures*

This paper investigates the common, yet previously opaque, practice of using foreign audit firms (component auditors) to conduct portions of audit work for U.S. public companies. U.S. regulators have expressed concern for the transparency and quality of audits using component auditors. Employing data disclosed in the newly mandated PCAOB Form AP, we find that component auditor use is largely structural, determined by the size and complexity of clients' multinational operations. We do not find that the mere use of component auditors is detrimental to audit outcomes, but rather the amount of work conducted by component auditors is associated with lower audit quality (i.e., higher likelihood of misstatement), higher likelihood of nontimely reporting, and higher audit fees, which collectively suggest that component auditor engagements are associated with adverse outcomes. Furthermore, we find that only the work performed by less competent component auditors and those facing geographic and cultural/language barriers, including significant geographic and cultural distance, weak rule of law, and low English language proficiency, is associated with adverse audit outcomes. Overall, these findings provide initial archival evidence that the use of certain component auditors on U.S. multinational audits is associated with audit coordination issues, which suggests that PCAOB Form AP disclosures provide relevant information.     

Auditors' Fee Premiums and Low‐Quality Internal Controls*

We examine the relation between low‐quality internal controls and audit fee premiums. Using a novel data set of audit hours and audit fees we find, consistent with the audit risk model, that auditors increase their effort (hours) owing to low internal control quality. We find that auditors also charge a significant fee premium to clients with internal control weaknesses. This premium is observed for severe internal control weaknesses and companies with low‐quality alternative governance mechanisms. The results are robust to multiple methods to address endogeneity, including company fixed effects, difference‐in‐differences design, and a propensity score‐matched sample. Taken as a whole, low internal control quality leads to fee premiums, which are a deadweight loss to client companies.     

Capital controls and the political discount: The Spanish experience in the late 1980s

This article examines the wedge between Madrid and London peseta interest rates in the late 1980s, when controls on capital inflows were imposed. A model of onshore and offshore markets and of arbitrage between the two is proposed, where arbitrage has a dynamic structure caused by the process of controls avoidance. The model implies, first, that the wedge can follow an ARMA process and, second, that onshore and offshore rates can be cointegrated and can adjust according to an error correction mechanism. These models are consistent with the data and show that the monetary independence given by the controls was limited.     

证券管制效率与声誉缺失:一个基于博弈框架的分析

证券市场管制效率问题，可以从“上市公司—投资者博弈”这一常常为学术界所忽视的视角中取得一定的理论解答。本文发展了一个无限期重复模型和一个简化的KMRW声誉模型，从上市公司声誉缺失角度入手，认为声誉的建立与维持对于证券市场发展至关重要，也是证券管制政策能否有效的有力指针。并且，由于投资者投资心理作用以及博弈双方局中的战略特征，声誉一旦缺失很难重建，管制当局有必要在教育投资者以及建立企业声誉测量机制方面取得突破。     

互联网金融企业数据共享的必要性和可行性分析——基于KMRW模型与信息成本价值论

金融的核心之一是风险控制,而利用大数据技术控制风险已是趋势所向。不同互联网金融企业在其数据获取渠道以及拥有的数据类型方面各有优劣,但他们在风险控制与降低信息成本方面有着共同目标。可由于企业自身的数据量有限,导致不能很好地通过大数据处理去风险评价和控制风险。通过用信息价值成本论和简化的声誉模型研究了企业之间通过共享数据去扩充企业数据量的必要性和可行性,指出共享数据库有助于降低信息不对称程度,降低企业风险,有助于企业长期发展,也有助于互联网金融朝着普惠金融的目标实现。     

A Reexamination of Behavior in Experimental Audit Markets: The Effects of Moral Reasoning and Economic Incentives on Auditor Reporting and Fees*

This study uses experimental markets to investigate how moral reasoning influences auditor reporting under different levels of economic incentives. In each multiperiod market, auditor subjects could either (1) misreport low observed outcomes as high and thereby reap economic advantages at the expense of third‐party investors, or (2) truthfully report low observed outcomes as low but thereby forgo the economic advantages of misreporting. We extend the Calegari, Schatzberg, and Sevcik 1998 experimental‐markets setting to incorporate moral reasoning, and test hypotheses based on the economic model of Magee and Tseng 1990 and the neo‐Kohlbergian moral reasoning framework of Rest, Narvaez, Bebeau, and Thoma 1999. We document a significant effect of moral reasoning on auditor behavior. Specifically, we find that misreporting and premium fees are more likely with higher than with lower moral reasoning subjects, and the moral reasoning effect diminishes as economic penalties increase in the market. These findings provide valuable insights for specifying the determinants of auditor misreporting, the observable behaviors that signal its existence, and the institutions that can prevent its occurrence in the market. We conclude that the relation between moral reasoning and behavior is more complex than commonly assumed in the accounting literature, and identify directions for future research.     

The state of the market and the contrarian strategy: evidence from China's stock market

Using the most comprehensive weekly dataset of ‘A’ shares listed on the Chinese stock market, this paper examines short-term contrarian strategies under different market states from 1995–2010. We find statistically significant profits from contrarian strategies, especially during the period after 2007, when China (along with other countries) experienced an economic downturn following the worldwide financial crisis. Our empirical evidence suggests that: (1) no significant profit is generated from either momentum or contrarian strategies in the intermediate horizon; (2) after microstructure effects are adjusted for, contrarian strategies with only four to eight weeks holding periods based on the stocks’ previous four to eight week's performance generate statistically significant profits of around 0.2% per week; (3) the contrarian strategy following a ‘down’ market generates higher profit than those following an ‘up’ market, suggesting that a contrarian strategy could be used as a shelter when the market is in decline. The profits following a ‘down’ market are robust after risk adjustment.     

日本年金制度及对我国的启示

日本是东亚国家中工业化最早、老龄化程度最高的国家。日本在向老龄化社会转变的过程中,建立了比较完善的年金制度,即养老保险制度。为了适应人口老龄化和经济不景气等的需要,日本年金制度又进行了多次的调整与改革。本文以制度创新的成本、收益分析为框架,考察了日本年金制度的变迁,分析了日本人口年龄结构和家庭、性别结构,认为日本"现收现付制"的年金制度存在代际间负担义务不平等、代内年金保险费缴纳不平等和性别不平等等问题。日本年金制度对我国养老保障制度完善具有一定的启示意义。     

The stock market and the ringgit exchange rate: a note

This paper presents and tests an augmented monetary model that includes the effect of stock prices on the bilateral exchange rates. The model is applied to the ringgit/US dollar (RM/US) and ringgit/Japanese yen (RM/JY) exchange rates. The empirical analysis is conducted by the Johansen method of cointegration. Using the data from the recent float that ends with 1996:Q4, the study is motivated, among others, by an interesting preliminary finding that although the augmented monetary model is cointegrated, it is subject to parameter instability and that the parameter time dependency can be attributed at least partly to a particular subset of the variables in the system including stock prices. We find that a restricted VAR model which imposes exogeneity restrictions on I(1) variables, such as stock prices, among others, exhibits both cointegration and parameter stability. In addition, we demonstrate that exchange rate adjusts to clear any disequilibrium in the long-run relationship. The empirical findings tend to suggest that the equity market is significant in affecting the exchange rate and in explaining at least in part the parameter instability evidenced in the cointegrating system. Hence, we conclude that models of equilibrium exchange rate should be extended to include equity markets in addition to bond markets.