审计委员会:本原性质与作用机理

本文研究审计委员会的本原性质和其在公司治理中的作用机理,并剖析以美国为代表的现行审计委员会制度安排。本文分析指出,审计委员会的本原性质在于,它是代表股东利益直接负责企业外部会计事务,并享有企业内部会计事务的消极权力,从而确保注册会计师对经理人的独立性,以降低企业治理成本。审计委员会的作用机理则需基础于其本原性质而设计。而以美国为代表的现行制度安排下的审计委员会不是符合本原性质的审计委员会,其性质是经理人为履行自身向股东等诚实报告之受托责任而专设的职能管理机构。     

审计委员会制度与中国上市公司治理创新

本文研究中国上市公司现行治理结构中的企业会计事务控制权安排及其缺陷,并提出改进措施。我们研究发现,在中国上市公司现行治理结构中,企业经理人不仅拥有企业内部会计事务的积极权力,而且实质拥有企业外部会计事务的积极权力,其中的作为董事会下设专门委员会的审计委员会不是我们所设计的本原性质的审计委员会,而是接近于美国现行公司治理结构中的审计委员会。这一安排不符合关于现代企业会计事务控制权安排的分权制衡原则,难以保证注册会计师审计的独立性。我们在分析中国上市公司治理中的监事会监督为什么会流于形式的基础上,提出应进行中国上市公司治理的创新,即取消监事会(制度),设立独立于董事会与之平行的符合本原性质的审计委员会,或将监事会改造为符合我们界定的本原性质的审计委员会。     

审计委员会特征与会计师事务所变更的经验研究

本文以会计师事务所变更为视角,探讨具备怎样特征的审计委员会才能有效履行其职责。研究表明:审计委员会的独立性和专业性与会计师事务所变更显著负相关;审计委员会的开会次数与会计师事务所变更没有显著关系,说明审计委员会的存在有助于减少会计师事务所变更。但在对会计师事务所变更的进一步研究中,我们并没有发现会计师事务所变是为了追求更高审计质量的进一步证据,也说明审计委员会对会计师事务所变更的影响仍然有限。这些研究结论为完善我国审计委员会制度提供了经验证据。     

Internal control audits: Judges' perceptions of the credibility of the financial reporting process and likely auditor liability

This paper reports the results of a study in which fifty-seven sitting United States judges participated in a behavioral experiment to assess the perceived credibility of the financial reporting process and the legal risk auditors bear under conditions where they provide an internal control audit report (vs. no report) under two corporate governance environments. We find that participating judges believe internal control audits provide enhanced assurance that intentional misstatements do not exist and also serve to provide elevated protection to the public, but only under conditions of a strong corporate governance environment beyond current regulatory requirements. We also find that, after being informed of an undetected material fraud, judges who currently have high expectations of the auditing profession find auditors more liable when an internal control audit report has been issued (as compared to when no such report has been issued).     

An Investigation of Audit Committees' Oversight Responsibilities

Audit committee performance has come under close scrutiny in recent years from a variety of policy-makers, interest groups and researchers. In particular, the adequacy of audit committee oversight has been challenged. At the same time, audit committees are under pressure to increase the scope of their oversight work. This study examines audit committee oversight from the internal perspective of active U.S. audit committee members. A two-part survey used Wolnizer's (1995) list of seventeen prescribed audit committee objectives related to accounting and reporting, auditors and auditing, and corporate governance in general as a basis to assess audit committee members' abilities to recognize their assigned objectives and explore their perceptions of the key tasks and issues currently addressed by audit committees. The results indicate that audit committee members appreciate the importance of all audit committee members having sufficient expertise in oversight areas related to accounting, auditing and the law. However, some respondents agreed they lacked sufficient expertise in many or all of these areas. In addition, the findings indicate that audit committee members tend not to recognize their assigned responsibilities, but agree with the proposed expansion of committee responsibilities. Using a multimethod approach, internal control evaluation was consistently listed and ranked as the most important oversight responsibility. These findings provide insight into the priority perceived by audit committee members as to their oversight responsibilities, and the adequacy of U.S. reporting disclosures as signals of audit committee work.     

The Role of Auditing in Corporate Governance in Australia and New Zealand: A Research Synthesis

Corporate governance is of growing importance in Australia, New Zealand and all over the world. Corporate governance interacts with auditing and it is useful to understand how corporate governance and auditing affect companies. A related issue is whether better governance is a substitute for auditing or a complement. Previous studies of that issue have had mixed results. This review article provides a synthesis of Australian and New Zealand research about corporate governance and auditing that assesses what has been found and examines issues that can be explored using multiple studies. We conclude that despite extensive research, there is still considerable uncertainty about how corporate governance mechanisms are related to auditing and how auditing is associated with corporate governance. We conclude that recommendations for better governance (beyond a minimum level) are not yet supported by evidence. The results are intended to be helpful in providing advice about policy in Australia and New Zealand, and in determining directions for new research.     

风险导向型审计·法律风险·审计质量──兼论“五大”在我国审计市场的行为

本文讨论了法律风险、风险导向型审计及审计质量之间的关系 ,主要观点包括 :风险导向型审计产生于美国 2 0世纪 70年代高法律风险的外部环境 ;我国会计职业界所面临的法律风险低 ,如果简单套用风险导向型审计 ,有可能导致审计质量系统性低下。文章还进一步讨论了以五大为代表的国际知名会计师事务所面临的道德风险困境及对审计质量的负面影响。     

The effect of audit committee shareholding,financial expertise and size on interim financial disclosures

In recent years, corporate failures and accounting irregularities have led to concerns about the effectiveness of audit committees in the financial reporting process. In response, corporate governance committees in different countries have made specific recommendations designed to enhance the role of the audit committee in executing its financial reporting oversight duties. We investigate in this study, the effect of some of these recommendations by empirically examining the relationship between selected audit committee characteristics and the level of disclosure in interim reports of a sample of 262 UK listed companies. Specifically, the audit committee characteristics examined are shareholding of audit committee members (as a proxy for audit committee independence), audit committee size and audit committee financial expertise. Employing both a weighted and unweighted index to measure interim disclosure, the results indicate a significant negative association between shareholding of audit committee members and interim disclosure. Our results provide evidence of a significant positive association between interim disclosure and audit committee financial expertise. We find no significant relationship between audit committee size and the extent of disclosure in interim reports. Overall, however, our results suggest that audit committee characteristics have an impact on its monitoring effectiveness of the financial reporting process. These results have important implications for corporate governance policy-makers who have a responsibility to prescribe appropriate corporate governance structures to ensure that shareholders are protected.     

提高大型商业银行公司治理效率的思考

银行公司治理改革取得了明显成效,但效率仍十分低下。应强化董事会的战略决策功能,提高决策效率。科学定位党委的角色,为公司治理各主体发挥作用创造条件。取消监事会,把内审部门划归董事会领导,强化董事会的监督功能,提高监督效率。加强分支行治理,提高公司治理的执行效率。加强企业文化建设,提升公司治理的效率基础。     

Corporate director liability and monitoring preferences

An important issue in the regulation of corporate behavior is its impact on the monitoring configuration selected by top management. In this article, we provide evidence consistent with the notion that the recent trend toward audit committee formation, and the movement toward Big-Eight auditors, are responses to increased legal exposure of the board of directors, notably stemming from the passage of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977. The costs associated with changes in monitoring configurations are also considered. In particular, it is argued that auditor assistance can substantially reduce the cost of audit committee formation. Because external auditors may have differential incentives to support audit committee formation, a hypothesis linking auditor identity and audit committee formation is offered. Recent auditor changes and audit committee formations of American Stock Exchange companies are examined to provide positive evidence for the theory. The data reveal a clear trend to form audit committees, and a movement to Big-Eight auditors. Underscoring the importance of auditor involvement, it is shown that audit committees were more likely to be formed given recent selection of a new Big-Eight auditor.     

独立性威胁、审计委员会制约有效性:理论分析与实证研究

本文在理论上深入分析审计制度安排中独立性威胁现象及审计委员会制度对独立性威胁的制约作用之后,基于2002—2004年我国上市公司审计委员会设立的基本情况,以审计意见和事务所变更为反应变量,对审计委员会制约独立性威胁的有效性进行了实证研究。研究发现,设立审计委员会的公司更不易被出具非标准审计意见,说明审计委员会的设立并不能有效提高审计师的独立性,但这同时也是反映政策效应的结果,即规模较大的上市公司倾向于主动配合监管政策设立审计委员会。本文的研究还发现,审计委员会的设立并不能令审计师免于因出具令上市公司不满的审计意见而被改聘的结果,说明我国的审计委员会制度未能在制约独立性威胁方面发挥作用,该结论同时得到实践调查结果与补充检验的支持。据此,本文认为,我国审计委员会制度在制约独立性威胁方面的功能还有待于进一步落实。     

An Analysis of Post–Expectation Gap Voting Behaviour by the ASB

In the United States, auditing standards are promulgated in the private sector by the Auditing Standards Board (ASB), which is a committee of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). In contrast to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), ASB members are not required to sever ties with their firms (parent organizations). As a result, ASB members have an opportunity to act as agents of their parent organizations in casting their votes for proposed Statements on Auditing Standards (SASs). McEnroe (1994) found such behaviour to exist in relation to the 'expectation gap' SASs and suggested as an area of future research to ascertain if this type of voting behaviour would continue on subsequent SASs. Accordingly, this research investigates the votes cast by the ASB members on the post–expectation gap SASs in an effort to determine if 'agency' voting has continued. The results support the proposition that agency voting behaviour is still prominent on the part of the ASB, even after repeated calls for its reformulation.     

Audit committee characteristics and investment in internal auditing

Regulators and others recently highlighted the increasingly important role of internal auditing in supporting and interacting with the audit committee to ensure the integrity and quality of financial reporting. Likewise, one of the roles of the audit committee is to oversee the quality of monitoring mechanisms implemented by the firm, which includes the internal audit function. However, our understanding of the relationship between the audit committee and internal auditing is limited. We fill this void by providing the first empirical evidence of the association between audit committee characteristics and the investment in internal auditing. Our analyses, from a sample of 181 SEC registrants, suggest that the investment in internal auditing (internal audit budget) is negatively related to the presence of auditing experts on the committee and the average tenure of audit committee members, but positively related to the number of audit committee meetings (a proxy for audit committee diligence). These observations suggest potential complementary and substitution effects between the audit committee and internal auditing, and thus raise important implications for future research.     

Corporate debt and financial balance sheet adjustment: a comparison of the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany

The level of UK corporate debt directly affects financial stability in the United Kingdom because a significant amount of the exposure of the UK financial system is to UK corporates. Our paper provides a comparison of the determinants of corporate debt in the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. The comparison serves to benchmark our findings about the determinants of UK corporate debt. In addition, the UK financial sector is significantly exposed to the corporate sectors in the United States, Germany and France. The model assesses the contribution of investment, acquisitions, cash flows and market-to-book values to the determination of debt, and also the tendency of debt to revert to its optimum level. Debt was found to be positively related to the financing needs of the firm, and the optimum level of debt to be negatively related to the market-to-book ratio. This casts some light on the procyclicality of debt.     

Auditor choice and bank risk taking

We investigate the importance of auditor choice on bank risk-taking in a cross-country setting for 5498 banks from 116 emerging and developed countries. Using the Z-score as our main proxy for bank risk, we report evidence that hiring a Big Four auditing firm reduces bank-risk even after controlling for bank and country variables. The reported evidence is valid for banks outside the United States and is robust to concerns relating to endogeneity and alternative banking risk measures. The results are economically meaningful. All else constant, the Z-score of a bank audited by a Big Four firm is 10.4% higher than a similar bank with a non-BIG Four auditor. Moreover, consistent with the view that Big Four auditors serve a corporate governance mechanism in emerging markets, we find that Big Four auditors maintain the ability to curb bank risk in countries characterized by weak institutions. Finally, our results suggest that while audit quality is associated with bank safety, its impact is reduced in countries that require audit-oversight.     

From Member of the Company to Registered Auditor: The Role of the External Auditor in Corporate Governance

Corporate governance has often been defined in a narrow way as comprising 'the range of control mechanisms that protect and enhance the interests of shareholders of business enterprises' ( Fama and Jensen 1983 ). In the corporate governance literature there has also been a general focus on the structure and functioning of boards of directors and the responsibilities of audit committees in relation to external auditing ( Rosenstein and Wyatt 1990 ; Shleifer and Vishny 1997 ). This article looks at the evolution of the role of external auditing in corporate governance. The role of the external auditor has changed through time, and consequently it should not be assumed that the role of external auditing is fixed or that it cannot be changed to meet societal needs and expectations. This observation leads to the primary argument of our article, which is that the role of the external auditor in corporate governance ought to be expanded in order to enhance the effectiveness of corporate governance for the benefit of a wider spectrum of stakeholders and society generally.     

Money,politics, and the regulation of public accounting services: Evidence from the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002

Because public accounting is a regulated practice, the profession actively manages its relationship with the state. While prior studies have analyzed the profession’s efforts to shape its regulatory environment, few studies have examined the profession’s pointed attempts to influence a specific regulatory policy that affects the practice of auditing in the United States. Drawing on extant theories of regulation and political economy, this study investigates the rationality and effectiveness of political action committee (PAC) contributions paid to members of the US Congress by the US public accounting profession during the policy formulation period of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002. Based on the results of empirical tests, we conclude that the US profession strategically manages its relationship with the federal government, in part, through direct involvement in the financing of political campaigns. Furthermore, the profession’s pattern of contributions implies an ideologically conservative as well as a professional regulatory motivation for providing financial support to federal legislators. Thus, although the US profession continues to proclaim the primacy of its public interest orientation, it does not appear to be politically neutral when attempting to influence public policy.     

Bank Finance versus Bond Finance

We present a model with agency costs where heterogeneous firms raise finance through either bank loans or corporate bonds and where banks are more efficient than the market in resolving informational problems. We document some major long‐run differences in corporate finance between the United States and the euro area, and show that our model can explain those differences based on information availability. The model fits the data best when the euro area is characterized by lower availability of public information about corporate credit risk relative to the United States, and when European firms value more than United States firms banks’ flexibility and information acquisition role.     

Incorporating big data in audits: Identifying inhibitors and a research agenda to address those inhibitors

With corporate investment in Big Data of $34 billion in 2013 growing to $232 billion through 2016 (Gartner 2012), the Big 4 accounting firms are aiming to be at the forefront of Big Data implementations. Notably, they see Big Data as an increasingly essential part of their assurance practice. We argue that while there is a place for Big Data in auditing, its application to auditing is less clear than it is in the other fields, such as marketing and medical research. The objectives of this paper are to: (1) provide a discussion of both the inhibitors of incorporating Big Data into financial statement audits; and (3) present a research agenda to identify approaches to ameliorate those inhibitors.     

How Much Do Taxes Discourage Incorporation?

The double taxation of corporate income should discourage firms from incorporating. We investigate the extent to which the aggregate allocation of assets and taxable income in the United States between corporate and noncorporate firms responds to the size of this tax distortion during the period 1959–1986. In theory, profitable firms should shift out of the corporate sector when the tax distortion is large, and conversely for firms with tax losses. Our empirical results provide strong support for these forecasts, and imply that the resulting excess burden equals 16 percent of business tax revenue.